Hammer-Wielding Intruder Who ‘Violently Assaulted’ Pelosi’s Husband Identified
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Police have identified the intruder who “violently assaulted” Nancy Pelosi’s husband and demanded to know the whereabouts of the Democratic House speaker after breaking into the couple’s San Francisco home early Friday morning.
David DePape, 42, is the primary suspect in the attack at the Pelosi residence, San Francisco police Chief Bill Scott said at afternoon press conference.
Local police are working with the FBI and Capitol Police to determine a motive. DePape will be booked on attempted homicide, assault with a deadly weapon, and other felonies, an officer added.
In the early hours of Friday morning, the assailant entered the Pelosi residence through a sliding glass door and screamed, “Where is Nancy?” Officers who arrived on-scene shortly after the break-in saw DePape and Pelosi wrestling for a control of a hemmer, Scott suggested. DePape then ripped the hammer out of Pelosi’s hand and hit him over the head with it, Scott said. Officers then intervened, disarmed the attacker, and arrested him.
Paul Pelosi was taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, where he is undergoing brain surgery, a hospital source told a local NBC affiliate. Pelosi is “expected to make a full recovery,” according to the speaker’s spokesman Drew Hammill.
“Early this morning, an assailant broke into the Pelosi residence in San Francisco and violently assaulted Mr. Pelosi. The assailant is in custody and the motivation for the attack is under investigation,” Hammill said in a statement.
“The Speaker and her family are grateful to the first responders and medical professionals involved, and request privacy at this time,” Hammill added.
Nancy Pelosi was reportedly not in San Francisco during the time of the incident.
According to online records and a blog he appears to have published, DePape was described as a “hemp jewelry maker,” and he appears to be an anti-censorship activist. He was named in a 2008 Oakland Tribune story, when he and a woman named Gypsy Taub – a nudist activist and 9/11 conspiracy theorist originally from Russia – attended a community Thanksgiving meal with “their three small children.” It is unclear if DePape and Taub are a couple. Taub did not immediately respond to request for comment.
In 2013, SFGate.com wrote an article about Taub and her plan to have a nude wedding ceremony on the steps of San Francisco’s City Hall. But she was not marrying DePape. Instead, she was marrying a man named Jaymz Smith, who was “half her age, minus two,” according to the outlet. She expected to be arrested.
A man who appears to be DePape – spelled in the story as dePappe – was described in the story as “a hemp jewelry maker and father figure who will double as best man.” According to the story, Taub, Smith, DePape, and her three kids, all lived together in “an upstairs Berkeley Victorian flat that is perpetually freezing.”
DePape appears to also have authored an online blog, titled “Welcome to Big Brothers Censorship Hell.”
“The founding father built in protection against censorship coming from the goverment [sic] because they never imagined a day when Tech giants and private industry would be so powerful they could single handedly silence the people,” the blog states.
The blog appears to have been updated twice, in August 2022 and in June 2007. The 2022 posts appear to be mostly memes and videos protesting government censorship, including one that reads: “Exposing communist collusion to push a pro communist propaganda narrative is against Big Brothers guidelines. You need to sit down and shut up and swallow our [expletive] communist opinions. Those who do not comply will be censored off the internet and have their livelyhoods [sic] destroyed.”
The 2007 blog posts seem to be mostly about God: “God accepts you, EVEN when you don’t accept yourself. God accepts you, EVEN when NOBODY else accepts you. And god accepts others. God accepts others EVEN when YOU don’t accept them.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted Friday that President Biden “is praying for Paul Pelosi and for Speaker Pelosi’s whole family. This morning he called Speaker Pelosi to express his support after this horrible attack. He is also very glad that a full recovery is expected.”
“The President continues to condemn all violence, and asks that the family’s desire for privacy be respected,” she added.
Pelosi’s home in the upscale Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco has been the site of protests and vandalism in the past. The house was vandalized last January, several days after Congress failed to increase Covid-stimulus checks to $2,000. Vandals spray-painted “2k,” “cancel rent,” and “we want everything” on her garage door.
San Francisco is one of the major California cities that has experienced a startling crime spike in the last couple of years. Since January of this year, larceny theft is up 15.3 percent, assault is up 11.1 percent, robbery is up 5.2 percent, and rape is up 8.2 percent, according to statistics from the city police department.
