Paul Pelosi attack: Five unanswered questions that are making the case even more murky
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: The hammer-wielding attacker who broke into US House speaker Nacy Pelosi's San Francisco home and attacked her husband Paul, has been arrested and charged for attempted murder. However, there are still many lingering questions about the whole affair.
David DePape, 42, broke into their home while yelling "Where's Nancy," the same line used by rioters on January 6 in the Capitol, as he attacked Paul. A week has passed since the attack and the speaker's husband is recuperating at home after undergoing surgery due to the injuries sustained in the attack. Here are five questions that are yet to be answered as the investigation progresses.
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Was there a third person present in Nancy Pelosi's home when David DePape attacked her husband Paul?
1. Was a third person is involved?
As per the Daily Mail, law enforcement officials said that only two people were at the Pelosi residence when police arrived. The two were Paul and DePape. The confusion was exacerbated by media reports that surfaced after San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) Chief Bill Scott stated at a press conference on October 28 that when officers knocked on the front door of the house, "the door was opened by someone inside," and officers saw Pelosi and DePape "inside the entryway of the home."
There was a misunderstanding regarding the phrase "another male" in the court filings when Pelosi was speaking with 911.
Social media users reported the presence of an unidentified third party at the scene of the incident as soon as they saw it. However, according to law enforcement authorities who spoke to Reuters, only Pelosi and DePape were there at the home then.
2. How did the attacker break into the house?
A court document stated that DePape broke through a glass window at the Pelosi home on Friday, October 28, and accosted a sleeping Paul while he was only wearing boxer shorts and a pajama top. DePape told detectives that he broke into the residence through the glass door while he was at the scene. Later, officers found his bag outside the broken glass doors. Another hammer, a laptop and several bags of zip ties were all found inside. The glass outside the back door, which some claim, appears to have been broken from the inside.
Glenn Beck questioned why the rear door was damaged on a part of the BlazeTV program 'What We Know So Far'. "It appears to be busted from the inside. I mean I watched enough Colombo excuse me sir one more thing when the glass be on the inside of the door and not the outside of the door but we don't know what kind of glass it was . . . we have no idea," he reportedly said.
It is unclear how DePape entered the house. Since the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, the San Francisco Police Department has frequently stationed a patrol car outside the Pelosi home. However, at the time of the attack, there was no patrol car present. Speaker Pelosi was in Washington, DC, at that time. Her security detail did not extend to her family, as per Daily Mail.
3. What exactly happened when police arrived at the scene?
Around 2.27 am on the day of the incident, police officers Kolby Wilmes and Kyle Cagney were reportedly called to Pelosi's home for an "A-priority" well-being check. DePape reportedly warned Paul not to open the door when they rang the doorbell, but he did so using his left hand.
According to the police report, Paul calmly greeted the policemen as he and DePape stood in the dimly lit foyer facing them. DePape pulled his hands against his body and said, "Everything's good," in response to one of the officers' questions about what was happening to the males. DePape was gripping Pelosi's right arm with one hand and the bottom handle of the hammer with the other when a cop flashed his flashlight. Additionally, Paul's right hand was resting on the hammer's handle.
DePape raised the hammer in response to the officer's command for the men to "drop the hammer," saying, "Uh, nope," as he attempted to get it away from Paul, who yelled, "Hey, hey!" After taking control of it, DePape hit Paul in the head, knocking him out. DePape was tackled to the ground and nabbed by officers.
4. How could he have assaulted when there were police present?
According to court document, the two responding police officers reportedly saw DePape strike Paul at least once in the head with the hammer. The policemen's body cams also filmed the assault.
5. What exactly are DePape's politics?
DePape's neighbors reportedly claimed that his politics were far more complicated, despite rumors that he was an insane far-right conspiracy theorist. They reportedly said that he displayed an LGBTQIA+ rainbow and Black Live Matter flags outside of his house, but they also claimed that any apparent leftist leanings were superficial and act-like, as per Daily Mail. His social media accounts revealed that he shared conspiracy theories regarding the causes of the Covid-19 pandemic, the legitimacy of the 2020 election and the Capitol riots.
DePape frequently used the hashtags "Trannies," "Da Jewbs" and "Great Reset" in his social media posts to launch rants against Jews, Black people, Democrats, the media and transgender individuals.
By the end of August, DePape appeared to have gotten preoccupied with the controversy surrounding Twitter's decision to block Jordan Peterson for his remarks regarding transgender people after the Canadian psychologist compared being transgender to "satanic ritual abuse." DePape most recently made the following statement in response to criticism of rapper Kanye West's tweet declaring war on Jews, "We are ALL the Jews' slave race." The Boston Globe reported that before he broke into Pelosi's house, DePape had written hundreds of blog articles supporting far-right conspiracy theories in only the previous month alone.
Additionally DePape is active on 4chan where he posted memes and engaged in discussions about his opinions with other anonymous users.