SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A 42-year-old Berkeley man is accused of breaking into Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home and beating her husband with a hammer earlier than daybreak Friday.
San Francisco Police Chief William Scott recognized the person as David Wayne Depape. “Our officers tackled the suspect, disarmed him, and took him into custody,” the police chief mentioned. Within the hours since Depape’s identify was introduced, a social media firestorm ignited over who Depape is, and whether or not he’s on the left or proper of America’s political spectrum.
Right here’s what we all know thus far about Depape.
Depape was a nudism fanatic
Depape is a part of a nudist advocacy group within the Castro district. “I’ve been conscious of him for a very long time as a result of he was related to the general public nudity of us within the Castro. It’s a protracted historical past with him,” State Senator Scott Wiener advised KRON4.
DePape was identified round Berkeley as a pro-nudity activist who had picketed bare at protests in opposition to native ordinances requiring individuals to be clothed in public.
He focused a Democrat
His goal was Nancy Pelosi, sources mentioned. Depape shouted, “The place is Nancy?” earlier than he violently attacked the Speaker’s 82-year-old husband, Paul Pelosi.
Nancy Pelosi was not house in San Francisco earlier than she is at the moment in Washington and scheduled to ship a keynote speech Saturday with Vice President Kamala Harris. Paul Pelosi suffered blunt power accidents and he’s recovering in a hospital.
He was a conspiracy theorist
Depape is a fringe conspiracy theorist.
“We all know that this particular person had a protracted historical past of fringe conspiracy idea views,” Wiener mentioned.
A weblog titled “God Is Loving” and written by an creator named David Depape. The weblog targeted on “Huge Brother” conspiracy theories and censorship. The creator rails in opposition to an “elite ruling class” of mainstream media and and expertise firms for censoring these not in energy.
In a put up written in August, the creator writes, “The elites/ruling class by no means censor themselves. You may nonetheless activate any mainstream information channel to listen to day and evening the narrative put forth by the individuals who rule you. The founding father inbuilt safety in opposition to censorship coming from the federal government as a result of they by no means imagined a day when Tech giants and personal trade can be so highly effective they may single handedly silence the individuals.”
The weblog was faraway from WordPress on Friday. It’s unclear why it was eliminated.
DePape seems to have made racist, and sometimes rambling, posts on-line, together with some that questioned the outcomes of the 2020 election, defended Donald Trump and echoed QAnon conspiracy theories.
On-line posts underneath DePape’s identify repeated false claims about COVID vaccines, questioned whether or not local weather change is actual and displayed an illustration of a zombified Hillary Clinton eating on human flesh.
He was estranged from his household
DePape as soon as lived in a public storage unit and he was estranged from his youngsters and associate, in accordance with Linda Schneider.
Schneider mentioned DePape helped out together with her city farm, housesat for her pal, and struggled with speaking. “David was excessively shy, and he reported to me that he had a historical past of not having the ability to talk with anyone in any respect. He was fearful of talking. He (was) seemingly a senseless follower of one thing he noticed on social media as a result of I don’t assume he needed to braveness to be a part of any political or terrorist group,” mentioned Schneider, who was additionally interviewed by CNN.
DePape’s drug use precipitated Schneider to later distance herself from him. “His drug use started once more and he went off his rocker,” she advised KRON4.
Born in British Columbia
He grew up in Powell River, British Columbia, earlier than leaving twenty years in the past to comply with an older girlfriend to San Francisco. The girlfriend, named Gypsy, and DePape had two youngsters collectively, his stepfather advised the Related Press. DePape additionally has a baby with a distinct girl, his stepfather mentioned.
He stays in custody
Depape is the custody of the San Francisco Police Division with no bail, inmate information present. He’s being handled for accidents at a hospital and he’ll ultimately be booked into jail.
He’s going through a slew of fees, together with: tried homicide, assault with a lethal weapon, first-degree housebreaking, threatening a member of the family of a public official, inflicting harm on an elder, battery with severe bodily harm, and dissuading a witness.
District Lawyer Brooke Jenkins wrote, “As of now, we imagine there will likely be sufficient proof to cost a number of felonies: tried homicide, assault w/ a lethal weapon, housebreaking & elder abuse.”
Jenkins added, “Though DePape’s motives are nonetheless underneath investigation, there’s completely no place for violent assaults like this in our neighborhood. Nobody must be the goal of this type of violence, not to mention our leaders and their households in their very own properties. The investigation into this horrific assault continues.”
The Related Press contributed to this report.
