Deranged man assaults Nancy Pelosi husband in San Francisco residence; cops catch suspect within the act; Paul Pelosi has surgical procedure to restore cranium fracture after hammer assault

A hammer-wielding intruder bent on discovering Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi broke into her San Francisco residence and brutally assaulted her 82-year-old husband early Friday morning, officers stated, horrifying politicians throughout the nation 11 days earlier than the midterm election.

Paul Pelosi, a businessman, suffered a cracked cranium and sustained wounds to his palms and arms, however was anticipated to totally get well after receiving surgical procedure at a San Francisco hospital, in response to the speaker’s workplace.

The attacker, recognized as David DePape, 42, was arrested on the scene of the assault, officers stated.

The intruder yelled, “The place is Nancy, the place is Nancy?” in the course of the break-in, a line that echoed calls that reverberated by the U.S. Capitol in the course of the Jan. 6 assault final yr.

DePape received into the Pelosi residence by a rear door, San Francisco Police Chief William Scott stated Friday night.

When Paul Pelosi encountered the intruder, he stated he had to make use of the lavatory, an individual conversant in the incident advised the Related Press. From the lavatory, Pelosi referred to as 911.

What occurred subsequent wasn’t clear, however Scott stated the 911 dispatcher realized there was “one thing extra” than Pelosi was telling her. She issued a precedence dispatch, and cops responded rapidly.

“I feel this was lifesaving,” Scott stated in reward of the dispatcher.

When officers arrived on the Pelosi residence at 2:27 a.m. native time, they discovered Paul Pelosi and DePape each clutching a hammer. The officers advised the boys to drop it.

As a substitute, DePape yanked the hammer from Pelosi’s hand and began to beat him with it. He hit Pelosi not less than as soon as earlier than the cops tackled and arrested him, Scott stated.

DePape was booked on the San Francisco County Jail on fees together with tried homicide, assault with a lethal weapon and elder abuse, in response to reserving data.

At a night information convention, Scott appeared to carry again tears.

“Our elected officers are right here to do the enterprise of their cities and their counties and their states. Their households don’t join this,” Scott stated. “All people must be disgusted about what occurred this morning.”

The FBI was working with the Capitol Police and the San Francisco Police Division on a joint investigation into the assault, authorities stated. The FBI stated it was on-site on the Pelosi residence.

Nancy Pelosi was in Washington on the time of the early morning ambush, the U.S. Capitol Police stated.

Drew Hammill, a spokesman for the Home speaker, stated in an announcement that Pelosi and her husband have been “grateful for the outpouring of assist and prayers from mates, constituents and folks across the nation.”

President Biden on Friday evening condemned the assault as “despicable.”

“There’s an excessive amount of violence, political violence. An excessive amount of hatred. An excessive amount of vitriol,” Biden stated at a Democratic rally in Pennsylvania.

“What makes us suppose it’s not going to corrode the political local weather? Sufficient is sufficient is sufficient.”

The motive for the assault was nonetheless being decided — however sources advised the AP that DePape focused Pelosi’s residence.

A voluminous weblog containing anti-Semitic and anti-Democrat rantings is registered to a home the place DePape lives in Richmond, Calif., close to Berkeley throughout the bay from San Francisco, the Washington Submit reported.

Someday this month, the weblog contained posts headlined “Balcks Nda jEwS,” “Had been the Germans so Silly?” “Who FINANCED Hitler’s rise to Energy,” “Fuel chamber doorways” and “I assume that is pretty much as good a time as any.”

DePape is understood within the San Francisco space as a pro-nudity activist who picketed bare in opposition to legal guidelines requiring individuals to be clothed in public, the AP stated.

The suspect’s stepfather, Gene DePape, stated DePape lived with him in Canada till he was 14. “He was reclusive. He was by no means violent,” DePape stated.

DePape stated he’d tried to get in contact together with his stepson a number of occasions through the years to no avail.

Officers have raised issues about potential political violence forward of the Nov. 8 midterm election, and the jarring incident despatched jitters by political circles.

California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, stated in an announcement that the assault was “one more instance of the damaging penalties of the divisive and hateful rhetoric that’s placing lives in danger and undermining our very democracy.”

“Our leaders ought to by no means worry for his or her security and the security of their households,” Newsom, a Democrat, stated within the assertion.

Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, tweeted, “What occurred to Paul Pelosi final evening is horrific.”

“We are able to have our political variations,” Cruz wrote, “however violence is all the time fallacious.”

In New York Metropolis, the Police Division has warned that extremist teams might goal political rallies and polling stations as Election Day nears.

An inner NYPD intelligence report stated extremists “will proceed to prioritize the focusing on of political rallies, voting websites, ballot employees, and election officers, necessitating elevated vigilance” going into the midterms.

Gov. Hochul tweeted that she was “horrified by the assault” in San Francisco. A spokesman for Mayor Adams, Fabien Levy, stated in an announcement that violence in opposition to the households of elected officers is “fully unacceptable.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the firebrand New York Democrat who has change into a punching bag of conservative media and has stated she faces each day threats, laced into Fox Information over the poisonous political atmosphere.

On Twitter, she described the community as a “billionaire-fueled propaganda channel that often generates excessive volumes of dying threats to elected officers whereas pumping propaganda for an excessive right-wing.”

Requested for remark, her spokeswoman Lauren Hitt texted: “Nothing so as to add to that.” Fox Information didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Former President Donald Trump, whose incendiary rhetoric and election lies impressed the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, didn’t instantly reply on social media to the assault on the Pelosi residence.

On his Fact Social platform, he posted on different matters, although, together with providing criticism of the New York state legal professional normal, Letitia James.

A spokeswoman for the previous president, Liz Harrington, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

The rivalry between Nancy Pelosi and Trump emerged as a defining feud of his presidency. Trump referred to as her “loopy” and a “mess” and a “third-rate politician.”

Seated behind him within the Home chamber, Pelosi as soon as memorably tore up a replica of his State of the Union deal with as he completed his speech.

In the course of the Jan. 6 assault, a fuming Pelosi privately stated of Trump: “I’m going to punch him out, and I’m going to go to jail, and I’m going to be comfortable,” in response to video footage aired by CNN this month.

Trump responded to the video’s launch by telling the conservative Salem Information Channel that Pelosi is “a despicable individual — very unhealthy for the nation.”

“If I ever stated that, it might be a nationwide scandal,” Trump stated.

However Trump generally appeared to encourage political violence — publicly — throughout his presidency, and advised a rally of supporters to “combat like hell” earlier than they overran regulation enforcement on the Capitol on Jan. 6

Knowledgeable that his supporters had weapons, Trump pushed to chill out safety checks on the rally, saying the group was “not right here to harm me,” a former White Home aide testified to Congress in June.

Quickly after Trump’s rally, Pelosi and lawmakers of each events within the Capitol needed to scramble to security.

Days earlier than the Capitol assault, vandals left graffiti and what gave the impression to be a pig’s head outdoors the Pelosi residence in San Francisco, KGO-TV reported on the time.

Paul and Nancy Pelosi, additionally 82, married in 1963. The Home’s first feminine speaker has been essentially the most highly effective lawmaker within the chamber since 2019, and likewise served as speaker from 2007 to 2011.

On Friday, the White Home press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, stated President Biden referred to as the speaker to specific his assist.

And Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, stated in an announcement that she was “completely horrified by the violent assault on Paul Pelosi.”

“I‘m sending my like to him and Speaker Pelosi, and I’m praying for Paul’s full and speedy restoration,” Gillibrand stated within the assertion. “One of these violence has completely no place in our society and should be condemned.”

With Thomas Tracy, Michael Gartland and Information Wire Providers