San Francisco’s former fire commissioner was brutally attacked with a metal crowbar just steps away from his mother’s front door as neighbors say ‘nobody is safe’ in the crime-ridden city.
Disturbing cell phone footage shows a man wandering the nearby area with a metal crowbar in hand – though police have yet to confirm he is the attacker.
Don Carmignani, 53, was left fighting for his life in hospital after the horrifying beating on Wednesday which came just one day after Cash App founder Bob Lee was stabbed to death.
Friends close to the victim allege he was targeted by a ‘group of homeless people’ as he was leaving huis mother’s home just outside the city’s Marina District.
Carmignani – who served as a fire commissioner in 2013 – was reportedly slashed with a knife as well as having his skull fractured by the pipe.
Disturbing cell phone footage shared on a local neighborhood app shows a man wandering the nearby area with a metal crowbar in hand
Police have yet to confirm whether the man in the video is linked to the attack on Carmignani
Carmignani – who served as a fire commissioner in 2013 – was reportedly slashed with a knife as well as having his skull fractured by the pipe
San Francisco police has arrested a 24-year-old man Gareth Doty who faces charges of assault with a deadly weapon and battery causing serious injury.
A male witness – who asked to remain anonymous – uploaded the video to the Citizens App after the attack.
He told CBS news: ‘He beat them brutally. I was screaming ‘stop, stop, stop! I was upstairs.
‘People were recording but I think people are afraid because they don’t know what these people have on them.’
Attorney Joe Alioto-Veronese – who is friends with Carmignani – wrote on Twitter Thursday: ‘Last night at 7pm in the marina district at Laguna and Chestnut Street, a friend and former San Francisco Commissioner was brutally beaten by a group of homeless people in front of his home.
‘He is at SF general fighting for his life. Pray4Him.’
Carmignani underwent surgery on Thursday and remained in ICU as of Friday afternoon, Alioto-Veronese later confirmed.
The beating was reminiscent of attack against Paul Pelosi – the husband of former House Speaker Nancy.
Pelosi was beaten with a hammer by a crazed David DePape on Oct. 28 in his Pacific Heights home, which is about a mile away from Carmignani’s block.
He told the New York Post: ‘It’s dangerous here and the fact that this could happen to a big guy like Don Carmignani, that tells us it could happen to anybody in any neighborhood in San Francisco.’
‘The fact that even Paul Pelosi could be attacked in a similar fashion in front of police officers inside his own home shows you that no one is safe in this city.’
This week San Francisco was rocked by the brutal killing of Cash App founder Bob Lee, pictured
Lee, 43, was targeted in San Francisco’s downtown residential Rincon Hill neighborhood at 2.35am on April 4
San Francisco has seen a violent uptick in crime, with police statistics showing the number of homicides in the city rose by 36.6 percent – from 41 to 56 – between 2019 and 2022.
Violent crimes also increased by 7.5 percent over the past three years throughout San Francisco.
Property crime has shot up 20.7 percent over the past three years.
Catherine Stefani, who represents the Marina District, said in a statement the city needs to provide the resources law enforcement needs ‘to turn the tide on crime in this city.’
She added: ‘As I pray for Don, his family, and his recovery, I want to be very clear: we cannot tolerate this kind of criminal activity.
‘Not in the Marina, not anywhere. Everyone has the right to feel safe in San Francisco, and that means the city has to stop playing politics with public safety.’
This week San Francisco was rocked by the brutal killing of Cash App founder Bob Lee.
Lee, 43, was targeted in San Francisco’s downtown residential Rincon Hill neighborhood at 2.35am on April 4.
CCTV footage obtained by Dailymail.com showed a mystery bystander prowling the streets where the tech mogul was slain.
The entrepreneur found multibillion-dollar tech company Cash App, a mobile payment service, and then became chief technology officer at the payment company Block. When he died, he was the chief product officer at MobileCoin, a crypto payment firm.
Colleagues of Lee, who created CashApp, have blamed city leaders for losing control of the rising violence – claiming they have ‘blood on their hands.’
Matt Ocko, the co-founder of DCVC, blamed the former District Attorney for San Francisco for the tragedy, as the new DA Brooke Jenkins gave her ‘sincerest condolences’ and added that she does ‘not tolerate these horrific acts.’
