By STEFANIE DAZIO and BRIAN MELLEY
Associated Press
Video released publicly Friday shows the husband of former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi fighting with his assailant for control of a hammer moments before he was struck during a brutal attack in the couple's San Francisco home last year.
The body-camera footage shows suspect David DePape wrest the tool from 82-year-old Paul Pelosi and lunge toward him with the hammer over his head. The blow to Pelosi occurs out of view of the camera and the officers -- one of them cursing -- rush into the house and jump on DePape.
Pelosi, apparently unconscious, can be seen lying face down on the floor in his pajama top and underwear. Officials later said he woke up in a pool of his own blood.
The state's evidence against DePape includes portions of Paul Pelosi's 911 call on Oct. 28, as well as video images from Capitol police surveillance cameras, a body camera worn by one of the two police officers who arrived at the house and a nearly 18-minute audio recording from DePape's interview with police.
The Capitol Police video shows DePape walk up to a glass-panel door, leave and then return wearing a large backpack and carrying two other bags. He set all the items down and pulled out a hammer, pausing to put on gloves, and used it to smash the door glass so he could step through an opening.
DePape has pleaded not guilty in ongoing state and federal cases. He is being held in jail without bail. He faces charges including attempted murder, elder abuse, and assaulting an immediate family member of a federal official.
Members of Congress have faced a sharp rise in threats in the two years since the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Paul Pelosi was asleep at the couple's home when DePape -- who was 42 at the time, roughly half Pelosi's age -- allegedly broke in. Nancy Pelosi was in Washington at the time and under the protection of her security detail, which does not extend to family members.
Her husband of nearly 60 years later underwent surgery to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands. He has since appeared in public wearing a hat and a glove that covered his wounds.
Nancy Pelosi on Thursday told reporters her husband's well-being was paramount and she did not know if she would view the video once it was released.
"I don't even know if I will see that," she said. "I mean, it would be a very hard thing to see an assault on my husband's life, but I don't know."
In an interview with San Francisco Police Lt. Carla Hurley after he was taken into custody, DePape said he didn't regret the attack even though it was not on Nancy Pelosi, his intended target. DePape told Hurley he was going after Nancy Pelosi for lying to the American public and that he planned to hold her hostage for her crimes. He believed the discredited conspiracy that Democrats stole the 2020 election from Trump.
"Day in, day out, the person who was on the TV lying every day was Pelosi," he said.
He said he planned to hold her hostage and would "break her kneecaps" if she lied.
He said he was surprised to find Paul Pelosi in the house. DePape said he planned to tie Paul Pelosi up so he could get some sleep, because carrying a heavy backpack to the home had tired him out.
When Hurley asked why DePape did not leave when he realized Nancy Pelosi wasn't home and the police were on the way, he compared himself to the Founding Fathers.
"They fought the British, they fought the tyranny. They didn't just (expletive) surrender to it. And when I left my house, I went to go fight tyranny, I did not leave to go surrender," he said.