Listen to this articleCharles Sykes/Invision/AP
- Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was attacked on Friday morning.
- Police acknowledged David DePape, a 42-year-old Berkeley, California, resident as the suspect.
- Online train from DePape confirmed he espoused conspiratorial views, in keeping with reports.
The suspected assailant of Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, espoused conspiracy theories on-line, along with claims that COVID-19 was a ruse by global elites to take over the financial system and that the 2020 election was stolen, in keeping with a quantity of reports.
Authorities acknowledged the suspect on Friday, the day of the assault, as David DePape, a 42-year-old Berkeley, California, resident. The San Francisco Police Department said DePape broke into the Pelosis’ residence and assaulted Paul Pelosi with a hammer.
“This was not a random act,” said Police Chief Bill Scott. “This was intentional.”
DePape has a winding earlier that mysteriously leads as a lot as an apparent fixation with extremist views, in keeping with reports.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that after turning into estranged from his family in British Columbia, DePape finally obtained right here to the Bay Area, at one degree changing into a member of a nudist group and turning right into a hemp jewelry maker. The newspaper moreover found that he was as quickly as registered as a member of the Green Party, which promotes environmentalism, social justice, and grassroots democracy.
But his latest political views and beliefs keep unclear as they may have taken a 180 based on extra moderen posts on a weblog and social media account that appeared to belong to DePape and had been thought of by some retailers sooner than being taken down. Insider could not independently affirm the posts.
Law enforcement officers accustomed to the investigation told The Wall Street Journal that the suspect held extreme right-wing views on social media.
In 2021, DePape shared a string of uncertain content material materials on his Facebook net web page, along with films from the My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, alleging that the 2020 election was stolen, along with content material materials with transphobic photographs and hyperlinks to internet sites claiming that COVID-19 vaccines are deadly, CNN reported.
The outlet moreover reported that he shared hyperlinks to YouTube films with titles akin to “Democrat FARCE Commission to Investigate January 6th Capitol Riot COLLAPSES in Congress!!!” and “Global Elites Plan To Take Control Of YOUR Money! (Revealed).”
In addition, he shared content material materials about a conspiracy concept claiming that global elites are using the pandemic as an excuse to take over the financial system and administration humanity, in keeping with CNN. He as quickly as wrote that politicians “are offering you bribes in exchange for your further enslavement.”
Laura Hayes, an acquaintance who as quickly as made hemp jewelry with DePape and is buddies with him on Facebook, knowledgeable CNN his newest posts had been “so phobic in so many ways” and full of “so much anger.”
DePape moreover appeared to look out an outlet by approach of personal blogs, with one registered beneath “david depape” and to a Bay Area zip code, NBC News reported.
Two of DePape’s internet sites acknowledged by the Sacramento Bee contained posts on a myriad of topics from aliens, Jewish of us, and communism, to vaccines and voter fraud.
One of the blogs had posts as recently as yesterday, the Bee reported.
