The man who allegedly broke into the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and attacked her husband, Paul Pelosi, was identified Friday afternoon as 42-year-old David Depape.
Police said at a press conference that they responded to the home around 2:30 a.m. and that when they arrived on scene they witnessed the suspect and Paul Pelosi fighting for control of a hammer. The suspect “pulled the hammer away from Mr. Pelosi and violently assaulted him with it,” police said.
“Our officers immediately tackled the suspect, disarmed him, took him into custody, requested emergency backup and rendered medical aid,” police added.
No motive was released as officials said that the investigation was ongoing.
Both Paul Pelosi and the suspect were transported to a local hospital for treatment.
“Early this morning, an assailant broke into the Pelosi residence in San Francisco and violently assaulted Mr. Pelosi,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said. “The assailant is in custody and the motivation for the attack is under investigation. Mr. Pelosi was taken to the hospital, where he is receiving excellent medical care and is expected to make a full recovery.”
Heavy.com, a fact-finding website, highlighted a tweet from a Mission Local journalist Joe Eskenazi that stated: “My sources also name the suspect in this morning’s hammer attack on Paul Pelosi as David DePape, born 1980, of Berkeley. He would appear to be a former Castro nudist protester. Things appear set to be bizarre for a while.”
The report highlighted a 2013 article San Francisco Chronicle in which the same man appears to have been mentioned, although his name is spelled wrong in the article but is spelled correctly in the captions of the one of the photos included in the article. The article described him as a “hemp jewelry maker.”
Reportedly Paul Pelosi attacker is David Depape — a Castro supporting nudist transient from Berkeley CA (he’s on the far LEFT literally and figuratively) pic.twitter.com/nR46npzcM6
— Lidia Curanaj (@LidiaNews) October 28, 2022
Nancy Pelosi was not home when the attacked occurred.
CNN reported that the assailant tried to tie Paul Pelosi up and repeatedly asked, “Where’s Nancy?” When the police arrived at the residence, the attacker said he was “waiting for Nancy,” the report said.
The U.S. Capitol Police, FBI and San Francisco Police Department are conducting a joint investigation into the attack, according to the Capitol Police, which said in a statement that staff from the field office “quickly arrived on scene, while a team of investigators from the Department’s Threat Assessment Section was simultaneously dispatched from the East Coast to assist the FBI and the San Francisco Police with a joint investigation.”
Ben Zeisloft contributed to this report.
