San Francisco’s ex-fire commissioner has said the city is ‘burning’ after the District Attorney dropped charges against a vagrant who repeatedly bashed him in the head with a metal crowbar.
Don Carmignani, 53, was left fighting for his life after being brutally attacked on April 12, when he sprayed pepper spray at the homeless man outside his mother’s home in the Marina District.
He suffered a fractured skull and jaw in the attack, and required 51 stitches after Garrett Doty, 24, allegedly beat him over the head with a crowbar.
Carmignani – who served as a fire commissioner in 2013 – claims his lawyers informed him that District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has decided not to prosecute Doty because he was acting in ‘self-defense’.
According to the injured former fire chief, prosecutors say because he sprayed the homeless man with pepper spray, he instigated the vicious assault.
The former fire chief suffered a fractured skull and jaw in the attack, and required 51 stitches after Garrett Doty, 24, allegedly beat him over the head with a crowbar
This is despite chilling footage showing Doty grabbing the crowbar out of the trash and taking practice swings moments before the attack.
Carmignani claims three people ‘smoking crack cocaine’ leaning up against his mother’s door the morning of the attack.
Speaking to CBS News, Carmignani said: ‘It’s sad. My city is in chaos. They’re driving out all the locals and everyone that pays taxes.
‘Something needs to change, the city is burning, and now you have the national guard coming in.
‘I was just informed by my attorneys prosecuting m for having pepper spray for defense bringing charges against me.
‘My daughter and her friends carry spray, what if it was one of them when you have animals in the street saying they are going to rape your daughter and kill your mother and you have nothing to do or help?’
Both the San Francisco Police Department and the District Attorney’s office did not respond to requests for comment from DailyMail.com.
Horrifying footage of the incident shows Doty backing Carmignani against the wall while waving the crowbar as he tries to defend himself.
Carmignani claims his lawyers informed him that District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has decided not to prosecute Doty because he was acting in ‘self-defense’
Chilling footage showing Doty grabbing the crowbar out of the trash and taking practice swings moments before the attack
Carmignani claims three people ‘smoking crack cocaine’ leaning up against his mother’s door the morning of the attack
The former fire boss held his first up in defense but was forced to wipe the blood from his face before being hit with another blow.
Doty can be seen chasing Carmignani down the road before leaving him for dead. He spent several days in the ICU.’
He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery with serious bodily injury and assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury.
But officials then released him back onto the streets of the crime-ravaged city after blaming the attack on Carmignani.
A source told the New York Post that police officers failed to interview Carmignani over his version of events before dropping the case.
They said: ‘We live in a city where both the Mayor and the DA are elected. Their re-election is very much tied to public perception of crime and safety.
‘They have a vested interest in changing the narrative to make it appear that crime is not random.
‘The city should stop politicizing public safety and instead focus on doing their job of making San Francisco a safe and livable City for everyone.’
A Whole Foods spokesperson confirmed that a new flagship store in the city closed down due to safety concerns for its staff amid rampant drug use, theft and aggressive behavior in the area
A former prosecutor suggested that San Francisco’s crime stats are even worse than the numbers imply
Organic food giant Whole Foods opened a new ‘flagship’ location at Trinity Place in the city’s Tenderloin district in March 2022
Carmignani claims that he had to take matters into his own hands after multiple 911 calls from his mother fell on deaf ears.
His attack came just a day after CashApp founder Bob Lee was stabbed to death in the middle of the night.
DA Jenkins warned that his murder was not random, and compared it to Carmignani’s case – before his colleague Nima Momeni was arrested a week later.
It was assumed that Lee had been killed by a vagrant before the charges were brought against IT consultant Momeni, with San Fran Police initially tight-lipped over the case,
A source close to Carmignani added: ‘The city was almost gleeful to announce that Bob Lee was not killed by a homeless person.
‘This response totally lost sight of the fact that Bob Lee was murdered, which is a tragedy and violent crime, no matter who perpetrated it.’
Harrowing surveillance footage shows Lee stumbling through the city streets after being stabbed at around 2.30am.
The father and tech investor was visiting from Miami, where he now lives.
He died in the hospital after suffering at least two stab wounds, but little else is known about his killing.
Lee, 43, was targeted in San Francisco’s downtown residential Rincon Hill neighborhood at 2.35am on April 4
This week San Francisco was rocked by the brutal killing of Cash App founder Bob Lee, pictured
The video – which DailyMail.com revealed first – showed him begging a taxi driver for help and stumbling around outside an apartment building.
Meanwhile, one of the largest supermarkets in Downtown San Francisco was forced to close just one year after opening due to widespread drug use, theft and aggressive behavior towards staff members.
Organic food giant Whole Foods opened a new ‘flagship’ location at Trinity Place in the city’s Tenderloin district in March 2022, hoping to revitalize footfall after two years of draconian COVID restrictions severely impacted businesses in the area.
But a Whole Foods spokesperson declared the store closed down last night due to safety concerns for its staff.
‘We are closing our Trinity location only for the time being,’ the spokesperson said in a statement.
‘If we feel we can ensure the safety of our team members in the store, we will evaluate a reopening of our Trinity location.’
It comes after a former San Fran prosecutor warned the city’s crime is worse than the data suggests, claiming cops don’t make arrests because the district attorney is ‘pro-criminal.’
Brooke Jenkins has been the DA of the troubled city of less than a year, having replaced the equally progressive Chesa Boudin
Former San Francisco prosecutor Charles ‘Cully’ Stimson said that the police are reluctant to make arrests because they know the current ‘pro-criminal’ district attorney will not prosecute
Charles ‘Cully’ Stimson said the public is reluctant to report crimes and police are hesitant to detain suspects because they know Brooke Jenkins won’t prosecute.
In July 2022, San Fran’s mayor appointed Jenkins, an outspoken critic of ousted DA Chesa Boudin, as his replacement, saying that her pick was the right person to pursue criminal justice reform while holding offenders to account.
‘Crime is worse than the data shows,’ Stimson told Fox News. ‘People do not report these crimes because when you have a DA who’s pro-criminal and not going to enforce the law, the cops aren’t going to go out and arrest somebody when they know the case is going to be no papered.’
Many recall backers were Democrats in a city where Republicans are a distinct minority. But the election has ramifications beyond San Francisco, with national polls showing Americans increasingly worried about violent crime.
Boudin was elected district attorney in San Francisco in 2019 promising to institute criminal justice reforms designed to keep low-level offenders from jail and spare juveniles from facing long prison terms.
His critics blame those policies for an uptick in murders, shootings and property crimes, as well as an increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans and pervasive open-air drug markets.