A former San Francisco fire commissioner was allegedly caught on tape viciously spraying homeless people with bear spray in the years leading up to the official being attacked with a metal rod by a homeless man earlier this month.
Don Carmignani carried out at least eight attacks between November of 2021 and January of 2023, according to public defender Kleigh Hathaway, who represents Garret Doty, who was arrested this month on assault and battery charges for the metal rod attack.
The attorney told The San Francisco Standard that police reports and surveillance video capture Mr Camignani holding a large can of chemical irritant to the one he allegedly had during the April encounter in which he was allegedly beaten.
“This is exactly like the can that he had during the assault with my client,” Ms Hathaway told The Standard.
The former city official has denied being the one seen in the footage.
In an interview with CBS Bay Area, he said he was the one who was attacked without provocation in April, when he asked a group of homeless people camped outside his mother’s home in the Marina District to move.
"I didn’t go out there to fight anyone. I’m trying to get them down the road, go to the park," Mr Carmignani said. "It’s three-on-one. I know odds. I’m 52 years old. I have two hip replacements. I’m an old guy, I could have been a dead guy."
Whatever provoked the altercation, Mr Carmignani was left with serious injuries including a fractured skull.
One of the attacks described by the public defender occurred on Magnolia street, where Mr Carmignani lives, Mission Local reports.
Following delays, a hearing will take place on Thursday to determine whether there is enough evidence against Mr Doty to proceed with a case and hold him in jail.
The new accusations in the case mirror another shocking change of course in a recent, high-profile San Francisco attack.
Elon Musk and other members of the tech community seized on the murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee to paint a false picture of a city riven with rising street crime, only for the main suspect in the case to emerge as a fellow tech worker named Nima Momeni, who denies involvement in the killing.
