Paul Pelosi assault suspect sought to take speaker hostage, prosecutors say By Reuters

By Paresh Dave and Steve Gorman

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -The person accused of bludgeoning U.S. Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer after forcing his method into the couple’s house threatened to take her hostage and break “her kneecaps” if she lied below his questioning, in line with a federal felony criticism filed on Monday.

David Wayne DePape’s alleged intentions emerged as federal prosecutors charged the 42-year-old suspect with assault and tried kidnapping in Friday’s predawn break-in on the Pelosis’ San Francisco house.

A number of state costs had been filed individually in San Francisco Superior Court docket, together with tried homicide, assault with a lethal weapon, housebreaking, elder abuse and threatening a public official, the district legal professional introduced at a information convention.

The 82-year-old speaker of the U.S. Home of Representatives, a Democrat who’s second within the line of succession to the U.S. presidency, was in Washington on the time of the assault. Her husband, Paul Pelosi, 82, has been hospitalized as he recovers from cranium fractures and accidents to his palms and proper arm.

Medical doctors anticipate a full restoration, the speaker’s workplace mentioned.

DePape was arrested by law enforcement officials dispatched to the house after Paul Pelosi positioned an emergency-911 name reporting an intruder, in line with an FBI affidavit filed as a part of the criticism.

The San Francisco Police Division recovered zip ties within the bed room and within the hallway close to the entrance door. Police additionally discovered a roll of tape, white rope, a hammer, one pair of rubber and material gloves and a journal in DePape’s backpack, the affidavit mentioned.

Paul Pelosi, who was initially left unconscious from the assault, later instructed police that he was asleep when a stranger, armed with a hammer, entered the bed room and demanded to talk along with his partner, the criticism states.

In keeping with Paul Pelosi’s account within the affidavit, he instructed the intruder that his spouse can be away for a number of days and the intruder responded that he would keep and anticipate her. Pelosi’s husband additionally recounted that he managed to slide away to the toilet to put the 911 name, the affidavit mentioned.

The suspect instructed police in an interview following his arrest that he deliberate to carry Nancy Pelosi hostage for questioning, and that if she instructed the “reality” he would let her go but when she “lied” he would break “her kneecaps,” in line with the FBI affidavit.

He instructed police he didn’t flee the Pelosi house after Paul Pelosi’s 911 name as a result of, in line with the affidavit, “very like the American founding fathers with the British, he was combating towards tyranny with out the choice to give up.”

The incident stoked fears about political violence forward of midterm elections on Nov. 8 that may determine management of the Home of Representatives and Senate throughout some of the vitriolic and polarized U.S. campaigns in many years.

Authorities mentioned law enforcement officials arriving on the Pelosi house noticed DePape and Pelosi struggling over a hammer. Because the officers shouted at each males to drop the device, DePape yanked the hammer away and struck Pelosi earlier than the officers subdued DePape and took him into custody.

DePape was charged with one rely of assault on a member of the family of a U.S. official and one rely of tried kidnapping of a U.S. official. Prosecutors alleged the offenses stemmed from the suspect’s intent to retaliate towards the Home speaker for her “efficiency of official duties.”

The costs carry a mixed most sentence of fifty years in jail, the Justice Division mentioned in a press release asserting the fees.

On-line messages just lately posted to a number of web sites by an web consumer named “daviddepape” expressed help for Republican former President Donald Trump whereas embracing the cult-like, right-wing conspiracy idea generally known as QAnon.

San Francisco Police Chief William Scott mentioned hours after the assault that it was not a random act of violence. The intruder shouted, “The place is Nancy?” earlier than attacking, in line with an individual briefed on the incident.