The San Francisco district attorney’s office on Tuesday dropped the charges against a homeless man who allegedly attacked former San Francisco fire commissioner Don Carmignani earlier this month with a crowbar, sending him to the hospital for emergency surgery to treat a hole in the back of his skull.
The case was dropped after prosecutors concluded the attacker, Garrett Doty, was acting in self-defense when he beat Carmignani so badly that he broke the former fire commissioner’s jaw and left him in need of 50 stitches, the New York Post reported.
The incident began when Carmignani confronted Doty and two other vagrants who were allegedly blocking Carmignani’s mother’s driveway in the city’s Marina District while consuming drugs and harassing neighbors. His mother’s calls to 911 had gone unanswered.
During the confrontation, the trio refused to leave and Doty allegedly became aggressive. Carmignani then deployed pepper spray on Doty.
Because Carmignani sprayed Doty, the district attorney’s office has concluded the homeless man was acting in self-defense when he viciously attacked Carmignani, despite prosecutors having obtained video of the attacker taking the crowbar out of a garbage can and taking practice swings before the attack.
Video appears to show Doty cornering Carmignani, who was heavily bleeding, against the wall of a gas station store while brandishing a crowbar. Carmignani tried to fight back, but Doty struck him in the head with the crowbar when Carmignani went to wipe blood from his eyes.
Carmignani attempted to escape toward the road but Doty hit him in the head again and then chased him down the sidewalk, according to the report.
The attack left Carmignani in the ICU for several days.
While Doty was initially charged with assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery with serious bodily injury, and assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, it not may be Carmignani who now faces charges for spraying the pepper spray, according to the report.
Police and the district attorney’s office did not interview Carmignani about the incident before dropping the case, a source close to the victim told the paper.
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