SAN FRANCISCO –
The man who hit US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband over the head with a hammer, yelling “Where’s Nancy?” after forcing his way into the couple’s home in San Francisco, he faced charges of attempted murder and other crimes a day later.
Police initially declined to offer a motive for Friday’s assault on Paul Pelosi, 82, who his wife’s office said underwent surgery for a fractured skull and injuries to his right arm and hands , although doctors expect a full recovery.
But the incident fueled fears of political violence less than two weeks before midterm elections on Nov. 8 that will decide control of the House and Senate, amid a more vitriolic American political climate and polarized in decades.
The 82-year-old House Speaker herself, a Democrat who is second in the constitutional line of succession to the US presidency, was in Washington at the time of the assault.
She flew to San Francisco to be with her husband. Three dark-colored SUVs believed to belong to a special security detail were parked Sunday with a city police patrol car outside Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, where Paul Pelosi was admitted.
Paul Pelosi Jr., the couple’s son, was also at the hospital. When asked by a reporter for an update on his father, he replied, “So far, so good.”
President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, on Sunday said it was his understanding that Pelosi’s husband “appears to be doing much better” and that the attack appeared to be “aimed at Nancy.”
Police identified the man arrested at the scene as 42-year-old David DePape. He, too, was taken to a San Francisco hospital.
Online sheriff’s records showed he was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, assault, robbery and several other crimes. Formal charges will be filed Monday and his arraignment is expected Tuesday, according to the San Francisco District Attorney’s office.
San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said at a news conference Friday night that police detectives, assisted by FBI agents, had not yet determined what precipitated the home invasion, but said, “We know it wasn’t a random act.”
A statement from Nancy Pelosi’s spokesman, Drew Hammill, said Pelosi’s husband had been attacked “by an assailant who acted forcefully and threatened his life as he demanded to see the speaker.”
The intruder called out, “Where’s Nancy?” before attacking, according to a person briefed on the incident who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
FROM HEMP TO HATE?
In the search for a motive, attention turned to the suspect’s apparent Internet profile.
In recent posts on various websites, an Internet user named “daviddepape” expressed his support for former President Donald Trump and espoused the QAnon cult conspiracy theory. The posts included references to “satanic pedophilia,” anti-Semitic tropes and criticism of women, transgender people, and censorship by tech companies.
Older posts promoted quartz crystals and hemp bracelets. Reuters could not confirm that the posts were created by the man arrested on Friday.
Extremism experts said the man who attacked Pelosi’s husband could be an example of a growing trend they call “stochastic terrorism,” in which sometimes unstable people are inspired to violence by speeches from hate and scenarios they see online and hear echo from public figures.
“This was clearly a targeted attack. The goal was to locate and potentially harm the speaker of the House,” said John Cohen, the former counterterrorism coordinator and head of intelligence at the Department of Homeland Security who works with agencies to ‘application of US law in the matter.
The San Francisco Chronicle published a photo of a man it identified as DePape dancing at the wedding of two nudist activists in San Francisco in 2013, even though he was clothed. DePape, then a hemp jewelry maker who lived with the couple in Berkeley, was the best man, the newspaper reported.
Scott said the intruder forced his way into Pelosi’s three-story red brick home through a back door. Aerial photographs showed broken glass at the back of the home in the city’s affluent Pacific Heights neighborhood.
WELFARE CONTROL
The chief said police were dispatched for a “priority A welfare check” around 2:30 a.m. based on a somewhat cryptic emergency 911 call from the residence. Other media reported that the call was made by Paul Pelosi.
Scott credited the 911 operator with using her experience and intuition to “figure out there was more to this incident than what she was being told” by the caller, so she dispatched the call with a higher priority higher than normal Scott called his decision a “life saver.”
According to Scott, police arriving at the scene saw DePape and Pelosi fighting over a hammer through the front door. When officers yelled at both men to drop the tool, DePape pulled out the hammer and was seen striking Pelosi at least once, the chief said.
Officers tackled, disarmed and arrested DePape and took both men to the hospital, Scott said.
The incident came a day after New York City police warned that extremists could target politicians, political events and polling places ahead of the midterm elections.
U.S. Capitol Police said they investigated 9,625 threats against lawmakers from both parties in 2021, a nearly three-fold increase from 2017.
As the Democratic leader in Washington and a longtime representative of one of America’s most liberal cities, Nancy Pelosi is a frequent target of Republican criticism.
Her office was ransacked during the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by supporters of then-Republican President Trump, some of whom hunted her down during the assault.
In January 2021, his home was vandalized with graffiti with a pig’s head left in front of the garage, media reported. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s home was also vandalized around that time.
(Reporting by Nathan Frandino in San Francisco and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; additional reporting by Andrea Shalal, Andy Sullivan, Brendan O’Brien, Jonathan Allen, Doina Chiacu, Rich McKay, Rami Ayyub, Tim Ahmann, Dan Whitcomb, Ismail Shakil , Tyler Clifford and Gram Slattery; written by Steve Gorman; edited by Jonathan Oatis, Alistair Bell and Daniel Wallis)