San Francisco’s former fire commissioner was brutally attacked this week after a “group of homeless people” slashed him with a knife and fractured his skull with a pipe in his own front yard, according to a family friend.

The attack on Don Carmignani happened just outside his home in the city’s Marina District, his friend and prominent Bay Area lawyer Joe Alioto Veronese revealed on Twitter.

“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 tweeted. “He is at SF general fighting for his life. Pray4Him.”