San Francisco Police has identified the suspect as 42-year-old David Depape, who will be booked on several charges, including attempted homicide, assault with a deadly weapon, elderly abuse and burglary. Depape’s motive for the attack is still under investigation. Police did not disclose whether Depape had any prior criminal record.
By Gillian Brassil, Michael Wilner
McClatchy Washington Bureau
SAN FRANCISCO — Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was hospitalized early Friday after being “violently assaulted” in a targeted attack at the couple’s San Francisco home.
The assailant was looking for Nancy Pelosi, D- San Francisco, and said “Where’s Nancy? Where’s Nancy?” before attacking her husband, according to initial reports. The speaker was in Washington and not in her Northern California home when the break-in took place.
“Early this morning, an assailant broke into the Pelosi residence in San Francisco and violently assaulted Mr. Pelosi,” the speaker’s office said in statement. “The assailant is in custody and the motivation for the attack is under investigation.”
Authorities said Paul Pelosi, 82, was severely beaten with a hammer in the 2:30 a.m. break-in but was expected to recover.
“The speaker and her family are grateful to the first responders and medical professionals involved, and request privacy at this time,” the speaker’s office added.
San Francisco police officers responded to the break-in and assault around 2:27 a.m. on Friday, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department, Sgt. Adam Lobsinger, said in a statement on Friday.
The FBI, San Francisco Police and U.S. Capitol Police have opened a joint investigation into the break-in, according to an announcement by the Capitol Police.
Special agents with the Capitol Police’s California field office “quickly arrived on scene,” the department said, “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.”
The San Francisco Police Department has the suspect in custody.
“The motivation for the attack is still under investigation,” the Capitol Police statement reads. “During the California break-in, the Speaker’s husband was assaulted, but he is now recovering.”
Paul Pelosi, a businessman who owns a real estate and venture capital firm, was sentenced in August to five days in jail and three years of probation after he was charged with driving under the influence and causing injury in a car crash. He had been arrested in Napa County in May after his 2021 Porsche struck a 2014 Jeep north of the town of Yountville.
President Joe Biden called Pelosi Friday morning after hearing the news and condemned the “horrible attack,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
“The president is praying for Paul Pelosi and for Speaker Pelosi’s whole family,” Jean-Pierre said. “He is also very glad that a full recovery is expected. The President continues to condemn all violence, and asks that the family’s desire for privacy be respected.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the break-in and assault a “dastardly act.”
“I spoke with Speaker Pelosi earlier this morning and conveyed my deepest concern and heartfelt wishes to her husband and their family,” he said in a statement on Friday, “and I wish him a speedy recovery.”
McClatchy’s Julia Marnin contributed to this report.
©2022 McClatchy Washington Bureau.
Visit mcclatchydc.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.