A San Francisco jury found a homeless man not guilty of assault charges Friday after the defendant argued he acted in self defense when he beat a former fire department official with a metal pipe.

The jury acquitted Garret Doty, 25, of all charges from his April confrontation with ex-fire commissioner Don Carmignani after the trial revealed Mr. Carmignani instigated the attack by spraying Mr. Doty with bear spray.

The defendant responded by striking Mr. Carmignani with a metal pipe, leaving him with a broken jaw, fractured skull and a traumatic brain injury.

The incident started when Mr. Carmignani clashed with Mr. Doty over camping outside his Marina District home.

“Self-defense can be fierce because the brain goes into survival mode, and that fear response is sadly heightened for unhoused people, like Mr. Doty, who live in constant exposure,” deputy public defender Kleigh Hathaway said after the trial.

The defense argued that Mr. Carmignani was the same person accused of pepper- or bear-spraying homeless people unprovoked throughout the city.

A November 2021 video of one attack shown during the trial led Mr. Carmignani‘s mother-in-law to testify that the perpetrator “looks like Don,” according to the San Francisco Standard.

Mr. Carmignani has not been charged in those incidents.

Juror Mike Brophy said after the verdict that Mr. Carmignani’s alleged connection to the spraying attacks was “damning.”

“We were all convinced the initial belligerent here was Carmignani,” Mr. Brophy said. “I really don’t like the feeling of my city trying to be an apologist for a known belligerent, a known vigilante.”

Ms. Hathaway, the public defender, said Mr. Doty plans to move back to his home state of Louisiana.

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