Paul Pelosi, 82, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was hit in the head multiple times in their San Francisco home on Friday.
The attacker who broke into the house of the speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and attacked her husband Paul turned out to be 42-year-old David DePepe. This statement was made by San Francisco police spokesman Bill Scott at a briefing for journalists. The broadcast was conducted on the Fox News Youtube channel.
It was found that the suspect appeared to have far-reaching and at times conflicting political positions, based on the proper analysis of his background.
While the motive for the attack on 82-year-old Paul Pelosi on October 28 is still unclear, blog posts being investigated in connection with DePape describe someone with sprawling and contradictory views.
Sources close to law enforcement also say that the suspect often posted anti- establishment ideas linked to far-right extremism.
It turned out that he ran a website on which he wrote many posts covering almost every type of modern conspiracy: aliens, Jewish people, communism, vaccines, election fraud and many other topics.
Many posts have been published in the last few months.
DePape’s stepfather, Gene DePape, said in an interview with CNN that DePape was estranged from his family and had grown up in Powell River, British Columbia, before leaving Canada decades ago for California.
Inti Gonzalez, A woman who identified herself as DePape’s 21-year-old daughter said that she wrote in a blog post that her mother kicked DePape out when she was 13 because of alleged “toxic” behavior. “He did genuinely try to be a good person but the monster in him was always too strong for him to be safe to be around.”
Gonzalez wrote that she contacted her father for several months to find out how he was doing.
“This attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband came as a shock to me,” she wrote. “I didn’t see this coming.”
Gonzalez said that she read her father’s blog but does not share his opinion on many things.
“It made me happy to see that he had strong opinions about important issues that our world is facing today,” Gonzalez wrote. “He wanted to make a difference.”
A motive in Friday’s attack remains unclear, and DePape had expressed sometimes conflicting political opinions.
Police Chief William Scott said during a press conference on Friday that officers arrived at the Pelosi home for a well-being check after the call shortly before 2:30 a.m. and witnessed the attack on Paul Pelosi. According to Scott, both DePape and Paul Pelosi held a hammer before the violent confrontation. DePape told police that he didn’t leave after Pelosi called 911 because “much like the American founding fathers with the British, he was fighting against tyranny without the option of surrender,” according to the federal court filing.
“The suspect pulled the hammer away from Mr. Pelosi and violently assaulted him with it,” he said. “Our officers immediately tackled the suspect, disarmed him, took him into custody, requested emergency backup and rendered medical aid.”
Paul Pelosi is being treated at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and was as of Saturday recovering from surgery to repair a “skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands,” according to a statement issued by Drew Hammill, spokesman for Nancy Pelosi.
DePape remained in the hospital Friday evening, the police chief said.
When the attack happened, Nancy Pelosi was in Washington D.C., according to U.S. Capitol Police. The House speaker has been fundraising and campaigning with Democrats around the country ahead of the midterm elections.
As for the Friday attack, DePape was “prepared to detain and injure Speaker Pelosi when he entered the Pelosi residence,” according to a federal court filing. Moreover, before the attack took place, he confronted Paul Pelosi, yelling, “Where’s Nancy, where’s Nancy?”, sources told NBC News.
DePape told police that he didn’t leave after Pelosi called 911 because “much like the American founding fathers with the British, he was fighting against tyranny without the option of surrender,” according to the federal court filing.
A senior US official briefed on the matter, added that the investigation is still ongoing.
Paul Pelosi didn’t have security. The spouses of high-ranking lawmakers do not receive it because they are not under the protection of the US Capitol Police.
Federal prosecutors announced Monday that they plan to charge DePape. State prosecutors are expected to do the same, meaning DePape will face two parallel legal processes.
DePape was incarcerated in the county jail on the recommended charges of attempted homicide, elder abuse, assault with a deadly weapon and burglary, according to jail records. According to police, he faces additional charges of aggravated battery with serious bodily harm, grievous bodily harm to an elderly person, dissuade a victim, threaten an official or family member, and damage or interfere with communications for an emergency call.
The FBI, US Attorney’s Office, US Capitol Police and the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office are conducting a joint investigation.
Some additional details about the life of the attacker are already known.
So, 32-year old Trish, a resident of Berkeley said that she last saw DePape in a neighboring house two weeks ago. He was near the school bus parked in front of the house.
Eyewitness said that DePape lived for a time in a school bus parked in the driveway of a house advertising “natural addiction treatment.” And added that he seemed to be part of a “hippie group” that lives at home.
The women described other details of the house: there was a sign in the window that said, “Black Lives Matter”. In the yard, a marijuana leaf and the colors of the pride flag were draped from a tree.
Trish described that people who lived there were unlike “any other happy-go-lucky, peace, love and friendship hippies. They’re aggressive and they’re mean and they start problems for no reason.”
She added that the neighbors may have had mental problems and regularly accused her and her partner of conspiring to break into their home and rob them. One of these accusations she received just on Christmas Eve.
The officer knocked on her door and said that she had received a complaint from her neighbors that she was planning to rob them.
“I invited the officer inside and said: “Look around – we are watching A Christmas Carol, there is ham in the oven, everyone is falling asleep. Christmas.”
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Main sources: NBC News, USA TODAY, The Washington Post https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nancy-pelosis-husband-attacked-know-david-depape-suspect-rcna54588
