Former fire commissioner badly injured in brutal attack in San Francisco
Brazen assault has further fuelled anxiety over crime in the city, police chief says
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Former San Franciso fire commissioner Don Carmignani has undergone emergency skull surgery after being brutally beaten by a man armed with a metal pipe, his family said.
The 53-year-old was attacked around 7.20pm on Wednesday outside his parent’s home on Magnolia Stree in the Marina district,The San Francisco Chronicle reported.
A suspect, identified by police as 24-year-old Garret Doty, was arrested nearby shortly afterwards.
The vicious assault came a day after tech executive Bob Leewas stabbed to death in the city’s Rincon Hill neighbourhood. It has further fuelled anger and fear among residents about crime rates in the California city.
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The victim’s father Ray Carmignani told The Chronicle that his son had been attacked by two homeless men who lived in the Marina neighbourhood.
Mr Carmignani Sr said his son suffered a fractured skull, broken jaw, and cuts to his head and face that needed 51 stitches.
He underwent surgery on Thursday in San Francisco General Hospital and is facing a long recovery.
The elder Carmignani added that he had lived his entire life in San Francisco but the family had decided to leave after Wednesday’s attack.
“Enough is enough. We’ll go to Nevada, we’ll go to Arizona, we’ll go somewhere,” he told The Chronicle.
“I’m not staying here. I can’t worry about walking out my door and getting attacked.”
At a community meeting on Thursday night to address safety concerns, SF Police Chief William Scott acknowledged the city had been shaken by Mr Carmignani’s assault.
“He’s expected to survive his injuries which is good news. But these types of brutal attacks and these types of brazen attacks, these are the kinds of things that have people anxious,” Chief Scott told CBS San Francisco.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins described it as a “very brutal and violent attack” at the same meeting.
Friends had initially express alarm that Mr Carmignani may not survive. “He is at SF general fighting for his life. Pray4Him,” Joe Alioto Veronese, a lawyer and close friend, wrote on Twitter.
“I don”t want you to die Don. FIGHT LIKE HELL!”
Mr Doty was booked on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and battery causing serious bodily injury.
San Francisco is already on edge after the unsolved murder of beloved tech executive Bob Lee early on Tuesday morning.
Police are yet to make an arrest in Mr Lee’s fatal stabbing, and say it is too soon to say whether it was a random attack.
Don Carmignani, a father of two, has worked in the legal cannabis industry and real estate after retiring from the San Francisco Fire Department.