On October 28, 2022, 42-year-old David Wayne DePape attacked Paul Pelosi, the husband of Nancy Pelosi, the 52nd speaker of the United States House of Representatives. DePape beat Paul with a hammer during a home invasion of the couple's Pacific Heights, San Francisco, residence, leaving him with a fractured skull that required surgery.
San Francisco police arrested DePape at the scene. He planned to take Speaker Nancy Pelosi hostage and interrogate her. Prosecutors believed the attack to be politically motivated. DePape, a Canadian immigrant to the United States, had a history of mental health issues and drug abuse. Before the attack, he had embraced various far-right conspiracy theories, including QAnon, Pizzagate, and Donald Trump's false claims of a stolen election in 2020. Online, he made conspiratorial, racist, sexist, and antisemitic posts, and pushed COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. His blog also contained delusional thoughts. At his subsequent trial, DePape testified that he was motivated by conspiracy theories and had hatched a "grand plan" to target Speaker Pelosi and others.
On October 31, DePape was charged with two federal crimes: assault of an immediate family member of a federal official with the intent to retaliate against the official on account of the performance of official duties; and attempted kidnapping of a federal official on account of the performance of official duties. He was also charged with six state felonies, including attempted murder, residential burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, and elder abuse. Within days, prominent right-wing figures, including then-former president Donald Trump, shared disinformation and misinformation about the attack, casting doubt on the assailant's motives and claiming that the attack was a false flag operation. Other politicians, including Democrats and Republicans, condemned the attack.
DePape was convicted of the federal charges on November 16, 2023. On May 17, 2024, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison and five years of supervised release from the federal charges. DePape was also convicted of five state charges on June 21, 2024, and subsequently sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on October 29, 2024.
Break-in and attack
During a police interview, David DePape said that he had gained access to the Pelosi residence by breaking through glass-paneled doors at the rear of the house. Subsequently released police body-worn camera footage showed the broken glass on the ground, and home surveillance video showed DePape breaking into the back of the house with repeated hammer blows. At the time of the break-in, Paul Pelosi, age 82, was sleeping in a third-floor bedroom. The intruder intentionally woke Pelosi and demanded to speak to "Nancy"; when Pelosi said that she was not home, the intruder said he would wait.
Pelosi called 911 on his cellphone at 2:23 a.m. PDT but when prompted by the San Francisco Police 911 dispatcher Pelosi indicated he did not need police, fire, or medical. Pelosi later inquired about the presence of Capitol Police and relayed that a "gentleman" (DePape) was waiting for his wife Nancy Pelosi to return. The dispatcher then advises Pelosi to "call us back if you change your mind". Pelosi continues the conversation by sharing more detail about DePape's actions and demands. The dispatcher then makes a series of inquiries to clarify the situation. At one point, DePape participates in this exchange sharing his full name with the dispatcher. The call ends after Pelosi indicates DePape wants him "to get the hell off the phone" and thanks the dispatcher. The call prompted the 911 dispatcher to send police to Pelosi's aid for a wellness check, which was credited with saving his life.
San Francisco police officers quickly arrived at the Pelosi residence and knocked on the door at 2:31 a.m. Pelosi opened the door. From outside the house, police observed DePape and Pelosi struggling for a hammer at the entryway. In front of police, DePape took the hammer and attacked Pelosi with a single blow. Released body camera footage of San Francisco police officers showed the door opening as DePape struggled with Pelosi. DePape grasped a hammer in one hand and Pelosi's arm in another; after an officer commanded him to drop the hammer, DePape responded "uh, nope" and lunged at Pelosi, swinging the hammer into his head.
Police then tackled and arrested DePape. After arresting the intruder, police discovered multiple zip ties, duct tape, white rope, a second hammer, and rubber and cloth gloves in his backpack. According to investigators, DePape had a list of additional potential targets.
Following the attack, Pelosi underwent surgery to treat a skull fracture at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. He also received treatment for serious injuries to his hands and right arm. Pelosi was released from the hospital on November 3. DePape was treated at the same hospital for minor injuries (specifically a dislocated shoulder); upon being discharged from the hospital, he was taken to the San Francisco County Jail.
Nancy Pelosi was in Washington, D.C., at the time of the attack. She rushed back to San Francisco on a government airplane, and a motorcade escorted her to the hospital where her husband was being treated. The following day, she wrote a "Dear Colleague" letter to members of the House of Representatives, saying that her extended family was "heartbroken and traumatized by the life-threatening attack" and thanking law enforcement, emergency services, and hospital staff for aiding her husband.
Paul Pelosi returned to public view over a month later, when he appeared with Nancy at the Kennedy Center Honors. He wore a hat and one glove to conceal his injuries. When asked by Anderson Cooper about her husband's condition in June 2024, over a year and a half after the attack, Nancy Pelosi replied, "He's making progress. He's about 80% there, physically. Traumatically, it's terrible."
Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the San Francisco Police Department, the United States Capitol Police (USCP), the U.S. Attorney's Office, and the San Francisco District Attorney's Office investigated the attack.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said that the attack appeared to be politically motivated based on statements and comments made by DePape on the night of the attack.
After being Mirandized, DePape gave an interview to San Francisco Police Department officers in which he said he planned to hold Nancy hostage and that he saw her as the "leader of the pack" of lies told by the Democratic Party. He said that he considered himself to be fighting "tyranny" and likened himself to the American founding fathers. DePape told the police that he planned to kidnap and interrogate Nancy, and would break her kneecaps if she "lied" to him, believing that by doing so, "she would then have to be wheeled into Congress" as a "warning" to other members of Congress. He also told police that he was on a "suicide mission" and had additional targets in mind, naming California governor Gavin Newsom, actor Tom Hanks, and Hunter Biden—the son of then-president Joe Biden—as prospective targets.
The day after the attack, pursuant to a federal search warrant, investigators searched a garage in Richmond, California, where DePape had lived for the previous two years. Investigators reported seizing "two hammers, a sword, and a pair of rubber and cloth gloves" from the property.
Before the attack, DePape was not known to USCP and was not on any federal watchlist. USCP had access to security cameras outside the Pelosi home; the cameras—part of a network of approximately 1,800 cameras to which USCP has access—were installed eight years before the attack. The footage captured the assailant breaking the glass and entering the home. However, at the time of the attack, the USCP did not monitor the external video footage in real time when Pelosi was not home. She had received more violent threats than any other lawmaker and was accompanied by a security detail when traveling.
Perpetrator
Canadian citizen David Wayne DePape, age 42, was arrested at the scene of the attack.
Life prior to the attack
DePape was born in 1980 and grew up in Powell River, British Columbia. At the time of the attack, he was present in the United States illegally, having overstayed his six-month temporary visitor B-2 visa issued in March 2008 when he entered at San Ysidro.
Shortly after finishing high school in Armstrong, he had migrated to the U.S. in 2000. In Hawaii, DePape met Gypsy Taub and moved with her to California. He became estranged from his family around that time. As Taub went on to become one the most prominent faces of the 2013 San Francisco public nudity movement, DePape remained a significant associate. Scott Wiener – a city supervisor in 2013, and later a state senator – described Taub and DePape as being part of a subgroup of "aggressive" and "creepy" public nudists, though DePape never appeared nude in public on grounds of being uncomfortable.
Taub said that she broke up with DePape in 2009; since then, his mental health had allegedly deteriorated from drug abuse and other causes. Taub described an incident from 2010 when DePape returned home after about a year of being incognito, identifying with Jesus, and exhibiting extreme paranoia. One acquaintance claimed to have had to cut off contact with DePape in 2012 after he displayed megalomaniac behavior and sent her multiple emails likening himself to Jesus Christ. Nonetheless, he remained part of Taub's circle and would even be the groomsman during her wedding in 2013; he continued to live in the same house with Taub, her spouse, and her three children. They rekindled their relationship at some point but broke up for good in 2015. DePape moved out and was homeless for a while; however, DePape and Taub remained intermittently in contact until Taub's incarceration.
At the time of the attack, he had been a resident of Richmond, California, for three years, living in a rented garage next to a home. In the six years prior to his arrest, he worked as a helper for a patio deck builder.
David's stepfather Gene DePape, who lived in Powell River at the time of the attack, told Global News that he hasn't seen his stepson since 2003, but was quiet and never violent as a child. He later disputed that David had gone to Pelosi's place with murderous intentions.
In 2007, DePape started a personal blog, initially writing about topics such as spirituality and the natural psychedelic ibogaine. In the months before the attack, DePape resumed writing on his blog after a long hiatus, this time on conspiracy theories and alt-right politics. In posts on social media and at least two blogs, DePape espoused far-right views, sharing political content and promoting QAnon, Pizzagate, and other conspiracy theories.
In 2021, DePape had posted videos by My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell that falsely claimed the 2020 U.S. presidential election to have been stolen; throughout 2022, he linked to COVID-19 vaccine misinformation videos – claiming that the vaccines were deadly and that data was covered up – and alleged that George Floyd had died of a drug overdose rather than being murdered by former officer Derek Chauvin. He credited Gamergate for making him shift in 2014 to right-wing politics. He also expressed a fascination for conservative authors Jordan Peterson and James A. Lindsay. One month before the attack, a website written under DePape's name declared that any journalist who challenged Trump's election fraud claims "should be dragged straight out into the street and shot". DePape also attacked Jews, immigrants, people of color, women, LGBTQ people, social justice warriors, Catholics, and Muslims. He promoted a range of antisemitic conspiracy theories, including proclaiming the innocence of Adolf Hitler, denying the Holocaust, and accusing Jews of orchestrating the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. His online posts were also often delusional, once attacking Jesus as "the antichrist" and included references to communication with invisible fairies and the occult. His last post, published a day before the attack, was titled "Why Colleges are becoming Cults".
Party affiliation records note DePape to be a Green Party member as of 2014; according to Taub, he was "more on the far left than the far right" during their relationship. Experts on extremism and terrorism say that such shifts in views – from left-wing fringe movements to the far-right – can be held as "side switching", a fairly common phenomenon among persons who are radicalized online, who shift between "mutually exclusive or hostile ideologies" through "bridging areas" such as antisemitism, anti-government stance, and misogynist beliefs.
State and federal prosecution
On October 31, 2022, federal prosecutors charged DePape with "attempted kidnapping of a federal official in the performance of official duties" and "assaulting an immediate member of a federal official's family and inflicting a serious injury with a dangerous weapon", On November 9, a federal grand jury indicted him on the same two charges. On November 3, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged an immigration detainer on DePape, who is a Canadian national, intending on taking custody of DePape after he is released from custody and making it possible to deport him.
On October 31, the San Francisco District Attorney's Office filed state charges against DePape, including six felonies: attempted murder, residential burglary, elder abuse, assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment of an elder, and threatening the family member of a public official. If convicted of all state charges, DePape faced a sentence of between 13 years and life imprisonment. On November 4, he was denied bail. A preliminary hearing was heard December 14. DePape pleaded not guilty to both the federal and state charges.