SAN FRANCISCO — Paul Pelosi, husband of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was attacked early Friday by an intruder who broke into the couple’s San Francisco home and fractured his skull with a hammer in what a law enforcement source said appeared to be a targeted assault.
Paul Pelosi, 82, sustained numerous upper-body blows, suffering hand and arm injuries along with a skull fracture that required surgery, officials said.
Another source who was briefed on the attack said the assailant shouted, “Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?” before confronting Paul Pelosi.
Drew Hammill, a spokesperson for the Democratic speaker’s office, said in a statement that Paul Pelosi was taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, where he “underwent successful surgery to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands.”
His doctors “expect a full recovery,” Hamill said.
At the start of the break-in, Paul Pelosi told the intruder that he had to use the bathroom, then made a surreptitious 911 call on his cellphone and left the line open, sources familiar with the attack told the Los Angeles Times. Dispatcher Heather Grimes could hear Pelosi talking to his attacker and alerted officers to the scene.
“It is really thanks to Mr. Pelosi having the ability to be able to make that call and truly the attention and instincts of that dispatcher to realize that something was wrong and to make the police call a priority,” San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins told CNN, adding that officers got to the scene in two minutes.
Police Chief Bill Scott in earlier remarks thanked Grimes for a “really amazing job.”
The attack came 11 days ahead of the midterm election. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has been in campaign mode, raising millions of dollars for candidates and pushing to maintain the majority hold the Democrats have on the House as the party’s power hangs in the balance.
Although the motive for the assault remains undetermined, the violence has sparked alarm in part because of heightened concern about the safety of public officials at their homes and offices in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, where Nancy Pelosi was one of the targets.
At a brief news conference Friday, Scott said officers responded around 2:27 a.m. Pacific time to reports of a break-in at the Pelosi home.
Responding officers encountered an adult male and Paul Pelosi “both holding a hammer,” Scott said.
The suspect pulled the hammer away from Pelosi and began violently striking him, the police chief said. Officers tackled the suspect, disarmed him and took him into custody.
Scott identified the suspect as David DePape, 42.
At some point after police arrived, DePape said he was “waiting for Nancy,” a law enforcement source told the Times.
After DePape was taken to a hospital, he was discharged and booked Friday afternoon on suspicion of attempted murder, first-degree burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, threatening a family member of a public official, elder abuse, battery with serious bodily injury, dissuading a witness and injuring a wireless device.
Jenkins, the San Francisco district attorney, said at the news conference that her office is “working closely” with authorities “and will proceed with the appropriate charges as things unfold.”
Nancy Pelosi was in Washington, D.C., with her protective detail at the time of the break-in, according to the U.S. Capitol Police.
“The speaker and her family are grateful to the first responders and medical professionals involved, and request privacy at this time,” her office said in a statement.
President Joe Biden spoke with the congresswoman Friday morning “to express his support after this horrible attack,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said in a statement.
“The president is praying for Paul Pelosi and for Speaker Pelosi’s whole family,” the statement said. “The president continues to condemn all violence, and asks that the family’s desire for privacy be respected.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking in Pennsylvania, said: “I pray for Paul’s recovery. I know the Pelosis, and this is tragic. Somebody literally broke into their home saying, ‘Where’s Nancy?’”
The U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement that it is assisting the FBI and San Francisco police in the investigation.
The Capitol Police sent special agents to the home, and investigators from the department’s Threat Assessment Section have been sent from the East Coast.
The Pelosis live in Pacific Heights, one of San Francisco’s most exclusive neighborhoods. On Friday, police blocked off the street outside the home.
John Braun, who has lived in San Francisco for 50 years, lamented the attack as he walked his dog nearby, while helicopters buzzed overhead.
“Nobody should be attacked in their homes,” he said. “Nobody should be attacked anywhere.”
Deborah Karel, who has lived in the neighborhood for three decades, said she was “horrified” by the assault.
“That anyone would go after our political leaders ... but also just common people that they don’t agree with. ... I feel like this is one of the many things that keeps happening that makes me very worried about democracy,” she said.
“I’m 72, and I’ve never been this worried. It never occurred to me that democracy might fail. But now it does. And this seems related.”
Aerial footage of the Pelosi home showed a back patio door with shattered glass.
Images of the four-bedroom brick home, built in 1938, are regularly featured on conservative websites. The house has been the site of protests; last year, someone used black spray paint to write “A,” for “anarchy,” on the garage door, and a severed pig’s head was left in front of the home.
The assault comes at a tense time in the U.S., which is grappling ahead of the midterms with bitter partisanship and a widespread belief in political conspiracy theories — including about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election — that have led to violence and threats against politicians, election workers and other public figures.
Democratic politicians on Friday were quick to blame the attack on hyperpartisanship and divisive political rhetoric.
“This heinous assault is yet another example of the dangerous consequences of the divisive and hateful rhetoric that is putting lives at risk and undermining our very democracy and Democratic institutions,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “Those who are using their platforms to incite violence must be held to account.”
“Our leaders should never fear for their safety and the safety of their families in serving the people they were elected to represent — not in their homes, not at the U.S. Capitol, not anywhere.”
State Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, said in a statement that the assault was “terrifying, and the direct result of toxic right-wing rhetoric and incitement against Speaker Pelosi and so many other progressive leaders.”
“Words have consequences,” he added, “and without question, the GOP’s hate and extremism has bred political violence.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tweeted that he was “horrified and disgusted” by the attack and thanked Capitol Police for their investigation.
Meanwhile, conservatives tried to paint the attack as an example of rising crime — a key issue in the midterm election.
Nathan Hochman, a Republican defense attorney and former federal prosecutor who is running to unseat California’s Democratic attorney general, Rob Bonta, showed up outside Pelosi’s home Friday morning.
Standing beside police tape blocking the street, he told a Times reporter that the incident was an example of rampant crime in California.
“If Paul Pelosi can’t be safe in his home in San Francisco, how can anyone be safe?” Hochman said. “This is a continuum of a spiral of lawlessness. Enough is enough.”
Political violence has been on the rise in California and across the nation.
In June, a Simi Valley man was charged with attempted murder of a U.S. Supreme Court justice after being found with a gun, knife and pepper spray near the Maryland home of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.
Last month, U.S. Rep. Karen Bass’ Los Angeles mayoral campaign announced that the Democratic congresswoman’s home “had been broken into and burglarized.” She said two firearms that were “safely and securely stored” were stolen.
In Northern California, a San Ramon man was convicted on multiple gun charges, including having a concealed firearm in his care, after threatening the life of Wiener last month.
Erik Triana, 51, was arrested after he sent Wiener a threat through the state senator’s “contact me” website portal that read: “Vax my kids without my permission and expect a visit from me and my rifle.”
In May, a Napa man, Ian Rogers, 46, pleaded guilty to conspiring to destroy a building by fire or explosives and possession of a machine gun after plotting to firebomb the Democratic headquarters in Sacramento.
Threats against members of Congress have increased dramatically over the last five years, according to data from the Capitol Police — from 3,939 cases in 2017 to 9,625 cases in 2021.
During the first three months of 2022, the latest period for which data are available, Capitol Police have opened roughly 1,820 cases, the agency said.
Capitol Police said in an email to the Times that, for safety reasons, the department “does not discuss potential security measures for Members.”
The attack on Pelosi came a day after the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI issued a report saying that investigations involving domestic violent extremism nearly doubled from 2020 to 2021.
The agencies said that in 2020, the FBI was conducting about 1,400 domestic terrorism investigations. By the end of 2021, it was conducting about 2,700. A “significant portion” of the investigations last year were “directly related to the unlawful activities during the January 2021 siege on the U.S. Capitol,” the report says.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York said in a statement that “what happened to Paul Pelosi was a dastardly act.” He said he spoke with Nancy Pelosi Friday to extend his “deepest concern and heartfelt wishes” to the family.
On Twitter, Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Sen. John McCain, said Friday that she felt “absolutely sick, horrified and disgusted” about the news of the assault.
“What in God’s name is happening in this country?! Everyone join me and send support, love, prayers, anything you can to Speaker Pelosi, her husband and the entire Pelosi family,” she wrote. “This is a broken world.”
