The San Francisco Police Department has arrested 42-year-old David DePape for allegedly breaking into the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and attacking her husband Paul Pelosi in the early morning hours of 28 October.
Mr Pelosi “is receiving excellent medical care and is expected to make a full recovery” while in hospital, according to spokesperson Drew Hammill.
“The Speaker and her family are grateful to the first responders and medical professionals involved, and request privacy at this time,” he added. Speaker Pelosi was not in San Francisco at the time.
According to CBS News, the suspect repeatedly shouted “where is Nancy?” when confronted by Mr Pelosi.
Mr DePape will be charged with attempted homicide, among other charges, according to police.
Here, The Independent breaks down everything we know about the suspect in the attack, Mr DePape, so far.
What happened during the attack?
The suspect, Mr DePape, reportedly entered the San Francisco home through a glass door and it wasn’t clear if he circumvented any security measures.
US Capitol Police said in a statement that agents with the California field office “quickly arrived on scene”, while a team of investigators were dispatched to assist the FBI and San Francisco police in a joint investigation.
Officers were dispatched to the family’s home at 2.27am, according to Chief Scott.
When they arrived on the scene, Mr DePape and Mr Pelosi were both seen holding a hammer.
The suspect pulled the hammer from Mr Pelosi and “violently assaulted him with it,” Mr Scott said.
Chief Scott added that officers “immediately tackled” Mr DePape and took him into custody.
In addition to the suspected weapon used in the attack, Mr DePape had also brought with him a bag that contained multiple zip ties and duct tape, according to two sources who have been briefed on the incident, CNN added.
The attacker had also attempted to tie up Mr Pelosi “until Nancy got home”.
Mr Pelosi reportedly suffered blunt force trauma to his head and body and is being treated for significant swelling and bruising, among other injuries.
Both Mr Pelosi and Mr DePape were taken to hospital for treatment. When law enforcement arrived at the residence, the suspect said he was “waiting for Nancy”.
Was there a known motive for the attack?
Mr DePape will be indicted on charges of attempted homicide, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, burglary “and several, several other additional felonies,” according to San Francisco Police Chief William Scott.
“The motive for this attack is still being determined,” Chief Scott said.
Mr DePape’s social media profiles reportedly included conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 presidential election, the 6 January, 2021 attack on the US Capitol and Covid-19, according to since-removed profiles reviewed by CNN and The Wall Street Journal.
San Francisco District Attorney’s Office Communications Director Randy Quezad confirmed to CNN that the two did not know each other prior to the attack.
Public posts reviewed by CNN and confirmed as authentic by Mr DePape’s family include videos produced by MyPillow CEO and prominent election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell, who continues to baselessly allege widespread fraud had manipulated the outcome of the 2020 election.
Other posts included transphobic images, false claims that Covid vaccines are deadly, and content surrounding sprawling conspiracy theories involving “global elites” allegedly corrupting and controlling the population.
The 42-year-old suspect reportedly had a list of other people he wanted to target in addition to the House Speaker, law enforcement confirmed to CBS News.
The sources told the news outlet that they wouldn’t go as far to characterise the list as a “hit list” but said that they suspect the man might have been planning more attacks on other people.
The sources briefed on the investigation did not reveal the identities of the other people included on the list.
What has the suspect’s family said about DePape?
His stepfather Gene DePape told CNN that he left Canada 20 years ago after growing up in British Columbia. He reportedly moved to California for a relationship.
A 2013 article in The San Francisco Chronicle identified Mr DePape as a “hemp jewelry maker” living in a Berkeley home with Gypsy Taub, the couple’s two sons, her daughter and another person.
Mr DePape’s stepmother, Teresa DePape, told The Daily Beast that “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 told the outlet. “But hammers are not words.”
A former acquaintance told CNN that he was at one point living in a storage unit and “trying to create a new life for himself.”
She later received “really disturbing” emails from him in which he sounded like a “megalomaniac and so out of touch with reality,” she told the network. She reportedly cut off communication with him after she determined it was “dangerous” and used “Biblical justification to do harm.”
Another acquaintance told the network that he claimed to talk with angels and said that “there will be a hard time coming.”
Mr DePape’s former partner, Taub, recounted to ABC 7 in an interview on Friday evening about how she believed he’d been “mentally ill for a long time”.
Taub made the call to the news outlet from the California Institution for Women in Corona, California. Last year, she was found guilty on 20 counts, including the attempted abduction of a 14-year-old boy near his Berkeley high school.
She met Mr DePape 20 years ago but the couple went their separate ways seven years ago. Taub explained an incident to the news outlet that occurred one time while they were together during which he disappeared for a year and when he returned, was not the same person.
“He came back in very bad shape. He thought he was Jesus. He was constantly paranoid, thinking people were after him,” Taub said. “And it took a good year or two to get back to, you know, being halfway normal”.
His politics, she admitted, seemed to have changed since she last knew him as when they first met, “he didn’t have any experience in politics”.
“He was very much in alignment with my views and I’ve always been very progressive.”
