Graphic video of Paul Pelosi attack released

A San Francisco court released graphic video on Friday showing the moment a hammer-wielding intruder attacked Paul Pelosi, the husband of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, inside the couple’s home.

David DePape is accused of breaking into the lawmaker’s house in San Francisco in the early hours of October 28, 2022 and attacking Paul Pelosi, fracturing the 82-year-old’s skull and causing other serious injuries . DePape pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder, residential burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, false imprisonment of an elder, and threatening a public official and his family.

Body camera footage, which confirms the account provided by investigators after the attack, shows police arriving at the Pacific Heights home to find Pelosi and the suspect standing calmly each with one hand on a large hammer.

After police demanded they drop the gun, DePape took control of the hammer, swung it over his head and hit Pelosi, according to police and video.

Officers rushed into the house and attacked DePape as Pelosi lay motionless.

Other evidence released by the court on Friday includes a recording of Pelosi’s 911 call, video footage from a Capitol Police security camera outside Pelosi’s home and a recording of the interview. of DePape with the San Francisco police.

Representative Nancy Pelosi briefly addressed the release of the evidence in comments to reporters on Capitol Hill on Friday.

“I did not hear the 911 call. I did not hear the confession. I did not see the burglary and I have absolutely no intention of seeing the fatal assault on my husband’s life. “, she said.

Nancy Pelosi thanked people for their prayers for her recovery and said her husband is “making progress but it will take longer”.

A coalition of at least a dozen news organizations, including The Times, asked the court to order the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office to release copies of records already submitted into evidence, arguing that the media and the public had the right to examine them.

DePape’s attorneys have opposed releasing the evidence, saying it could compromise his right to a fair trial and spark more misinformation about the case. The attack on Pelosi has spawned a flurry of unfounded conspiracy theories online, including on popular social media platforms.

San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Stephen Murphy disagreed with these objections, dismissing them as speculation. He said that while the right to a fair trial is “certainly a legitimate concern in all cases”, the court could not withhold release of the records for fear that they would be manipulated.

The evidence released by the court is limited to material submitted during a hearing in December. Although the videos were shown in court and reported by media at the time, news outlets were denied access to make the material publicly available until the court order this week.

Capitol Police video shows a man walking toward a glass door outside the Pelosi home. He looks through the window, walks away, then returns with a large backpack and bag. He puts the bags down and pulls out several items, including a hammer.

He then walks home and repeatedly swings the hammer. The camera angle doesn’t show what surface the hammer is hitting, but after several hammer blows and a burst that looks like a shard of broken glass, footage shows the man entering the house.

Nancy Pelosi was in Washington with her protective detail at the time of the break-in. Home security cameras were not actively monitored by US Capitol police on the night of the home invasion, according to the government agency.

The 911 call, which also went out on Friday, did not begin with a plea for help, but with Pelosi calmly telling a dispatcher that there was a “gentleman here just waiting to return. of my wife, Nancy Pelosi”.

“He’s just waiting for her to come back,” he said in a measured, patient voice. The dispatcher asked Pelosi if he needed police, fire or medical help, to which he replied, “I don’t think so.”

“Are the Capitol Police here?” He asked. “They’re usually here at home, protecting my wife.”

Throughout the nearly three-minute call, it’s clear that Pelosi is trying to make it clear that something is seriously wrong, but without losing her temper.

“He thinks everything is fine,” he said of DePape. “I have a problem, but he thinks everything is fine.”

Pelosi told the dispatcher he didn’t know the man. When the dispatcher asks for the man’s name, DePape replies that his name is David. The dispatcher then asks who David is.

“I don’t know,” Pelosi said. DePape says he’s “a friend of theirs.”

“He says he’s a friend,” Pelosi replied, repeating that he doesn’t know who he is and is being told to hang up. “I have to stop talking to you, okay?”

The dispatcher said she could stay on the phone with Pelosi to “make sure everything was okay.” But Pelosi said he was told to hang up the phone and the call ended.

DePape was obsessed with right-wing conspiracy theories and spent a lot of time alone, absorbing extremist views online, people who knew him told The Times shortly after the attack. Some of these views were reflected in an interview San Francisco police did with DePape shortly after his arrest.

In a 17-minute snippet of the interview, DePape offered ruthless details to the San Francisco police sergeant. Carla Hurley about her plans to break into the Pelosi home and question the former Speaker of the House.

“I’m not trying to get away with this,” DePape said. “I know exactly what I did.”

Hurley asked why DePape targeted the Pelosis and if the family did anything to him.

“Not to me specifically, but to the entire American public, honestly,” he replied.

DePape said he thinks Nancy Pelosi is “the ringleader” of Democrats in Washington telling lies. He then wandered into Watergate, Hillary Clinton, spying on rival political campaigns and other plots by Democrats working against former President Trump.

DePape said the Democratic Party went on a “criminal spree” during Trump’s four years in office, “until they were finally able to steal the election.”

DePape then described how his intention was to break into the Pelosis home, take the Democratic lawmaker hostage, and “talk to her.”

“If she was telling the truth, I would let her off the hook,” he said. But if she lied, he added, he would “break her kneecaps”.

“He wasn’t my target,” DePape said of Paul Pelosi.

He then detailed how he broke into the house using a hammer and pushing his way through the glass. He said the exertion made him “pretty breathless” at one point.

DePape said he initially thought no one was home, but then was “surprised” to find Paul Pelosi.

DePape said he told Paul Pelosi he was looking for his wife. Paul Pelosi asked DePape how the two could “resolve” the situation, he said. DePape said he was so tired from breaking into the house and carrying a heavy backpack full of supplies, he just wanted to tie up Paul Pelosi and go to sleep.

Paul Pelosi then called 911, with DePape standing next to him the entire time. DePape said he just wanted to speak to Paul Pelosi “frankly,” but would not be deterred by efforts to distract him.

“I have other targets. And I can’t be stopped by him,” DePape said.

“Why didn’t you leave?” asked the investigator.

“You know, the founding fathers, it’s like they fought the British. They fought tyranny. They didn’t just give up. And when I left my home, I went to fight tyranny. I did not leave to go and surrender,” he said.

DePape described Paul Pelosi running for the door once the police arrived.

“I’m standing right next to him with the hammer,” DePape said.

Pelosi then took the hammer from him, DePape said, “so I basically pulled him away from him and hit him.”

“I told him, I’m not going to surrender. I am here for the fight,” he continued. “If you prevent me from pursuing the evil, you will suffer the retribution instead.”

He told police he didn’t know how many times he punched Paul Pelosi, but used his “full strength”.

Paul Pelosi has attended public events in Washington since the attack. He accompanied his wife to an event at the Kennedy Center in December, The Hill reported, and was photographed with her as the new session of Congress began on January 3.

“It’s been tough,” Nancy Pelosi said in a recent interview with The New York Times. “It’s going to be about another three or four months before he really gets back to normal.”

Times reporter Nolan D. McCaskill contributed to this report.