Police body camera footage of last year’s gruesome hammer attack on then-House Speaker. Nancy Pelosi’s husband in San Francisco was released Friday.
The video, first obtained by todaystrend News. Affiliate KNTV, shows police approaching Pelosi’s home. And then opening the door as Pelosi stands next to David DePape, a suspect in the case. Both hold hammers.
“Everything is fine,” DePep said when asked what was going on.
“Drop the hammer,” one of the officers says.
“Nope,” DePape replies, before wresting it from Pelosi and attacking him with it. The officers immediately tackle DePape. And Pelosi is seen lying motionless on the ground. The time between the door being opened and the hammer attack is about 14 seconds.
Prosecutors also released Capitol Police security video of the exterior of the home. It shows DePape with several bags, including a large backpack, in a yard outside the Pelosi home. He appears to remove the hammer from the bag. The video then shows him using the hammer to break into the house. Swinging the tool to force his way in through a glass door on the back porch.
He said he made his way to the couple’s bedroom to find only Paul Pelosi there, and sound asleep. “All that noise he did not hear,” DePape said. According to an excerpt of his police interview released Friday.
He said he woke Pelosi up and demanded to know where his wife was. “He’s like, ‘She’s not here,'” he recounted.
Pelosi was able to get into the bathroom, where his phone was, and called 911, DePape said.
Prosecutors released audio of the call Friday.
Pelosi tries to sound the truth while asking for help. And then becoming more panicked as the 911 operator doesn’t realize she’s in danger.
“I made a mistake,” he said at the beginning of the call. “There’s a gentleman waiting for my wife to come back, Nancy Pelosi. He’s waiting for her to come back. But she’s not going to be here for a few days, so I guess I’ll have to wait,” he said.
It soon became clear that DePep was listening to Pelosi. “What do you think?” Pelosi asked him. DePape replied, “everything is good.”
Pelosi then said, “He thinks everything is fine. I’ve had problems, but he thinks everything is fine.”
“This gentleman came home and wants to wait for my wife to come home. She came home,” Pelosi said. Asked if she knew the man, Pelosi said, “No. I don’t know who he is. He’s telling me not to do anything.”
Asked for the man’s name, Pelosi said she did not know.
“I’m David… I’m one of their friends,” DePep can be heard saying.
“He said he’s a friend but I don’t know him,” Pelosi told the operator, before adding, “He wants me to hang up, okay?” Then the call ends.
Pelosi suffered a fractured skull and injuries to her arms and hands during the attack.
Nancy Pelosi told reporters at the Capitol on Friday. That she had not heard the audio recordings. And had no intention of viewing the video of the “vicious attack on my husband’s life.”
“We thank people for all their prayers that they continue to send us,” he said.
The evidence was released after a coalition of news organizations. Including todaystrend News, made a motion to the judge presiding over.
Prosecutors from the San Francisco district attorney’s office refused to release. The evidence to the media, telling the judge they were concerned.
The video footage could be used to spread false information.
San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Stephen Murphy sided with a group of 13 news. And that their release would help fight misinformation in the case. The judge noted Wednesday when he issued his decision. That the evidence was played in open court at a preliminary hearing last month.
Rep. Joe Lofgren, D-Calif., a friend of Nancy Pelosi, said he hadn’t seen. The video and didn’t think the release would dispel conspiracy theories.
“it’s unfortunate that the judge felt the need to release it, but that’s his decision,” Lofgren said.
“Our Republicans have already made fun of the attack, joked about it. it only feeds those who want to profit in some way on a tragic attack,” he said.
In the state lawsuit, DePape, 42, is charged with attempted murder. Assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, residential burglary. False imprisonment and threatening a public official for the Oct. 28 attack on Pelosi, 82.
He faces two federal charges stemming from the attack – attempted kidnapping. And assault with intent to retaliate against a federal. Official by threatening or injuring a family member.
Depep has pleaded not guilty to both counts.
In court filings, state attorneys said he told officers at the scene. His real target was Nancy Pelosi, who was not home at the time.
“I’m sick of the insane —— level of lies coming out of Washington, DC. I’m here to hang out with his wife,” DePep said, according to the filing.
“I didn’t want to hurt him, but you know it was a suicide mission. I’m not going to stand here and do nothing even if it costs my life,” he complained.
The federal indictment said DePep told police he was “going to hold Nancy hostage and talk to her.”
“If Nancy had told DePeppe the ‘truth,’ she would have let him go. And if he had ‘lied,’ she would have ‘broken his knee,'” the complaint alleges.
In excerpts from the interview published Friday, DePep said he was angry. About the investigation into former President Donald Trump. And the alleged theft of the 2020 election. And said he was fighting “tyranny.”
