Nancy Pelosi husband attack: Who is David DePape, suspected Paul Pelosi assailant?

David DePape, a 42-year-old with a concerning online presence and ties to a radical nudist activist, is accused of breaking into the San Francisco home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Friday morning and attacking her husband with a hammer, according to city police.

Officers arrested the Berkeley man after they responded to a call around 2: 30 a.m. and encountered him and the congresswoman’s 82-year-old husband, Paul Pelosi, struggling over a hammer. The suspect took the hammer from Mr. Pelosi, and then violently assaulted him with the weapon,” San Francisco Police Chief William Scott stated during a news conference later that morning. “Our officers immediately confronted the suspect, disarmed them, took him into custody, requested emergency support, and rendered medical assistance to him. Both DePape and Pelosi were taken to the hospital following the incident.

NANCY PELOSI’S HUSBAND PAUL PELOSI ATTACKED BY SUSPECT WHO SHOUTED ‘WHERE IS NANCY?’: SOURCE

David DePape
(Michael Short/San Francisco Chronicle)

The attack left Pelosi hospitalized, but he is expected to make a full recovery after undergoing successful surgery on a fractured skull, according to Drew Hammill, Nancy Pelosi’s spokesman. He also sustained serious injuries to his left arm, as well as both hands.

Hammill claimed that DePape threatened Paul Pelosi’s safety while he demanded to see his wife.

Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was severely beaten by an attacker who broke into their San Francisco home in the early moning of Friday, October 28th, 2022. Paul Pelosi, 82, was taken to the hospital and is being treated by doctors for injuries after he was beaten with a hammer
(Fox News)

The suspect allegedly broke into the house and began shouting “Where is Nancy?” Fox News sources said that

“Mr. DePape was booked at San Francisco County Jail for the following charges: attempted homicide and assault with a deadly weapons, elder abuse, burglary, and several other felonies.”

The motive remains under investigation, he said. The FBI and Capitol Police assisted.

Paul Pelosi (L) and Nancy Pelosi attend the Bloomberg & Vanity Fair cocktail reception following the 2015 WHCA Dinner at the residence of the French Ambassador on April 25, 2015 in Washington, DC. Dimitrios Kambouris/VF15/WireImage
(Dimitrios Kambouris/VF15/WireImage)

PAUL PELOSI SAN FRANCISCO ATTACK: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT VIOLENT HOME INVASION

DePape has been described on Twitter alternately as a far-right extremist and a nudist who sold handmade jewelry. He also had ties with Gypsy Taub, a Berkeley nudist activist, according to California State Senator Scott Wiener, D. San Francisco.

“She is the ringleader, and she was very aggressive and creepy,” Wiener said to Fox News Digital on Friday. “And I believe he was one the people in her work. “

They weren’t “regular nudity activists” either, he stated. They were aggressive, and she embraced 9/11 denials and has a criminal past.

According to an Alameda County District Attorney’s Office press release from last summer, a woman named Oxane Taub who shared the address was convicted of more than 20 charges after stalking a 14-year-old boy she had become “fixated on” and attempted to kidnap.

After taking off her clothes at the U.S., Nudist Gypsy Taub spoke with reporters Courthouse in San Francisco, California January 17, 2013. Before a hearing on a lawsuit to stop San Francisco’s ban against public nudity, nudists gathered.
(REUTERS/Robert Galbraith )

“Over the course of 14 months, she sent him numerous obsessive emails, created blogs directed at him, used his friends to send him messages and eventually tried to abduct him a few blocks from his school in Berkeley,” District Attorney Nancy O’Malley’s office said at the time. Taub tried to dissuade her victim from testifying while the case was pending. “

Separate court filings show a 2017 lawsuit over Wiener’s anti-nudity ordinance was filed by a plaintiff named Oxane “Gypsy” Taub. The FBI visited Taub’s home Friday afternoon to inquire about DePape. DePape had not been there for many years, he said.

The San Francisco home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Paul Pelosi is seen after police say David Depape violently assaulted Paul Pelosi early Friday, Oct. 28, 2022.
(KGO-TV)

Facebook disabled DePape’s profile early Friday and declined to answer questions. At least two online blogs under DePape’s name are stocked with posts from the years of 2007 and 2022 speaking of “censorship,” “Big Brother,” and pedophiles. One contained calls for violence and antisemitic content. It wasn’t immediately clear if he was responsible for the posts. San Francisco police didn’t immediately respond to questions about DePape’s online presence.

Teresa DePape, the wife of the suspect’s adoptive father Gene, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he left Canada after high school, roughly two decades ago, and the family lost touch.

“She said that she never considered David a violent person. “I can see David defending his self – why he is in somebody else’s home looking for someone, I don’t know. “

CONGRESSIONAL LAWMAKERS AGHAST AFTER PELOSI’S HUSBAND ATTACKED DURING BREAK IN

The Pelosi’s $8.4 million townhouse is located in an upscale area patrolled by the San Francisco Police Department’s Northern Station, which saw a 4.3% uptick in total crime for the region year-to-date as of Oct. 23, police records show. The number of violent crimes at the Northern Station increased 5.2% over the same period last year.

Fox News’ Adam Sabes, Stephanie Pagones and David Spunt contributed to this report.