Conspiracy-Addled Intruder Allegedly Tried to Tie Up Paul Pelosi, Asked ‘Where’s Nancy?’

A 42-year-old hemp jewelry maker, who reportedly shared COVID conspiracy theories online and lived with a nude activist, was arrested Friday morning for allegedly breaking into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home in San Francisco and bludgeoning her husband with a hammer.

Paul Pelosi was hospitalized after being “violently assaulted,” Drew Hamill, the Speaker’s spokesman said in a statement, by an intruder who reportedly broke in through a rear entrance at about 2:27 a.m. In a follow-up statement, Hamill said the “assailant acted with force, and threatened [Paul Pelosi’s] life while demanding to see the Speaker.”

The assailant was identified by San Francisco Police Chief William Scott as David DePape. Scott said officers encountered DePape and Mr. Pelosi “both holding a hammer” when they arrived. “The suspect pulled the hammer away from Mr. Pelosi and violently assaulted him with it. Our officers immediately tackled the suspect, disarmed him, took him into custody, requested emergency backup, and rendered medical aid.”

Scott listed the charges DePape is expected to face as attempted murder, elder abuse, burglary, and “several other additional felonies,” noting that the motivation for the attack is still under investigation. CNN reported that the intruder shouted, “Where is Nancy, where is Nancy?” after entering the home, and tried to tie Mr. Pelosi up “until Nancy got home.”

Pelosi was admitted to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital where he underwent surgery for a skull fracture and “serious injuries” to his right arm and hands, according to Hamill, who said doctors “expect a full recovery.”

On a personal website uncovered by The Daily Beast, DePape shared series of extreme right-wing opinions, from anti-LGBT sentiments to COVID disinformation.

DePape had also posted YouTube videos about 2020 election conspiracies and the House committee investigating the Capitol riot, CNN reported.

Reached by phone at her home in British Columbia, DePape’s stepmother, Teresa DePape, told The Daily Beast, “David has always had an opinion.”

“I’m one of these people who thinks everybody has an opinion, and I was raised when sticks and stones would break your bones, but words will never hurt you,” she said. “But hammers are not words.”

She said the family had not yet spoken to DePape, who remains in police custody, and DePape’s father, Gene, was at work and unavailable to comment.

She said her stepson chose to stay in B.C. with Gene when Gene divorced DePape’s mother. His only sibling, a sister, moved away, she said.

DePape eventually moved to California, got married, and had kids, Teresa said, describing her shock at the news of her stepson’s arrest. Gene told CNN his son followed a love interest to California about 20 years ago.

“I only have him as a good kid,” Teresa told The Daily Beast before getting off the phone to call the San Francisco PD, saying she wanted to speak to DePape first before commenting further. “Although, at this point, he’s not a kid anymore.”

DePape appears to have sold hemp jewelry, though the website for his business is currently down. (His only tweet reads “Mushroom Hemp Necklaces” and contains a broken link; his Pinterest page contains broken links to several multi-colored necklaces.)

Two relatives told CNN that DePape is estranged from his family, and an acquaintance from eight years ago said he was struggling with hard drugs at the time but was “trying to create a new life for himself.” She said she cut off contact with DePape after receiving “disturbing” emails in which he sounded “dangerous” and “out of touch with reality.” A second woman who worked with DePape about a decade ago said he told her he spoke to angels and that there was “a hard time coming.” Both women said he lived in a storage shed or storage unit at the time.

DePape’s last known address was in Berkeley, California, where he lived with nude activist Gypsy Taub. (Taub is perhaps best known for her nude nuptials in San Francisco, where DePape served as best man.) An SF Gate article from 2013 described the apartment as a three-bedroom, six-person flat that was “perpetually freezing.” DePape reportedly served as a “father figure” to Taub’s three children, who also lived in the apartment.

DePape, Taub, and her children attended a communal Thanksgiving dinner at a market in Oakland in 2008, according to the Oakland Tribune. Taub was quoted as saying, “We like to meet our neighbors. I want my children to learn that everyone is a human being and a friend.”

Taub’s daughter told The Daily Beast on Friday afternoon that her mother is presently in jail and that the family won’t be commenting on the allegations against DePape until she is released in another 2.5 months.

Two sources who spoke to the Associated Press said Mr. Pelosi sustained blunt force injuries to his head and body during the early morning attack, leaving him with bruising and severe swelling.

A spokesperson for Nancy Pelosi, who was in D.C. at the time, said her husband was taken to the hospital “where he is receiving excellent medical care and is expected to make a full recovery.”

Shattered panes of glass in what appeared to be the Pelosi home’s rear entrance were visible in footage from a local news chopper hovering over the scene.

The United States Capitol Police said in a statement that the Speaker was in D.C. with her protective detail at the time. It’s not clear what security detail was at the Pelosis’ residence, if any.

“Special Agents with the USCP’s California 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,” Capitol Police said in a statement, adding that the assailant’s motive was still under investigation.

Larry Kamer, Mr. Pelosi’s spokesperson, told The Daily Beast on Friday morning that he did not have any information to provide.

Assaults are up 11 percent this year in San Francisco, and robberies are up 5 percent, although burglary has actually fallen significantly in 2022, according to statistics on the city police department’s website.

Threats against members of Congress, specifically, have skyrocketed recently, with the number of investigations launched by Capitol Police rising from 3,939 in 2017 to 9,625 in 2021, according to stats provided to The Hill last month.

Members have been granted additional funding for home security, but more is needed as threats continue to escalate, according to the AP.

According to a report released last week by Princeton University’s Bridging Divides Initiative, threats and harassment against public officials have reached “an inflection point.” Focused primarily on local officials, the report found “increasing general support for the use of threats and harassment... with respondents justifying such attacks on ideological grounds.”

Of 400 cases between 2020 and 2022, about 40 percent were related to election issues, 30 percent were related to education issues, and 29 percent to health issues—overwhelmingly COVID-19, the report found, noting that female officials were targeted 3.4 times more than men.

“Thank God [Nancy Pelosi’s] husband Paul is safe after being attacked in their home by an assailant,” Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) tweeted Friday. “While the motive is still unknown we know where this kind of violence is sanctioned and modeled.”

—with additional reporting by Zachary Petrizzo