Suspect in Pelosi attack graduated from Armstrong high school: report

Photo: The Canadian Press

Investigators work outside the home of Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in San Francisco, Friday, Oct. 28, 2022. Paul Pelosi, was attacked and severely beaten by an assailant with a hammer who broke into their San Francisco home early Friday, according to people familiar with the investigation

UPDATE 5:50 p.m.

The man accused of breaking into U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's California home and attacking her husband with a hammer graduated from Pleasant Valley Senior Secondary School in Armstrong.

The Globe and Mail reports David dePape split his adolescence between the Sunshine Coast in Powell River and in Armstrong, B.C.

The accused attacker’s stepfather Gene dePape told the Globe and Mail David was an antisocial teen who preferred video games over the outdoors.

He ended up in the North Okanagan when Gene and David’s mother split, and the mother moved with the children to Armstrong. While David returned to Powell River for most of his high school years, he ended up graduating from Pleasant Valley Senior Secondary School in Armstrong in 1998.

UPDATE 5 p.m.

The man accused of breaking into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's California home and severely beating her husband with a hammer appears to have made racist and often rambling posts online, including some that questioned the results of the 2020 election, defended former President Donald Trump and echoed QAnon conspiracy theories.

David DePape, 42, grew up in Powell River, British Columbia, before leaving about 20 years ago to follow an older girlfriend to San Francisco. A street address listed for DePape in the Bay Area college town of Berkeley led to a post office box at a UPS Store.

DePape was arrested at the Pelosi home early Friday. San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said she expected to file multiple felony charges, including attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary and elder abuse.

Stepfather Gene DePape said the suspect had lived with him in Canada until he was 14 and had been a quiet boy.

“David was never violent that I seen and was never in any trouble although he was very reclusive and played too much video games," Gene DePape said.

He said he hasn’t seen his stepson since 2003 and tried to get in touch with him several times over the years without success.

“In 2007, I tried to get in touch but his girlfriend hung up on me when I asked to talk to him,“ Gene DePape said.

David DePape was known in Berkeley as a pro-nudity activist who had picketed naked at protests against local ordinances requiring people to be clothed in public.

Gene DePape said the girlfriend whom his son followed to California was named Gypsy and they had two children together. DePape also has a child with a different woman, his stepfather said.

Photographs published by The San Francisco Chronicle on Friday identified DePape frolicking nude outside city hall with dozens of others at the 2013 wedding of pro-nudity activist Gypsy Taub, who was marrying another man. Taub did not respond Friday to calls or emails.

A 2013 article in The Chronicle described David DePape as a “hemp jewelry maker” who lived in a Victorian flat in Berkeley with Taub, who hosted a talk show on local public-access TV called “Uncensored 9/11,” in which she appeared naked and pushed conspiracy theories that the 2001 terrorist attacks were “an inside job.”

A pair of web blogs posted in recent months online under the name David DePape contained rants about technology, aliens, communists, religious minorities, transexuals and global elites.

An Aug. 24 entry titled “Q,” displayed a scatological collection of memes that included photos of the deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and made reference to QAnon, the baseless pro-Trump conspiracy theory that espouses the belief that the country is run by a deep state cabal of child sex traffickers, satanic pedophiles and baby-eating cannibals.

“Big Brother has deemed doing your own research as a thought crime,” read a post that appeared to blend references to QAnon with George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984.”

In an Aug. 25 entry titled “Gun Rights,” the poster wrote: “You no longer have rights. Your basic human rights hinder Big Brothers ability to enslave and control you in a complete and totalizing way.”

The Associated Press

ORIGINAL 2:30 p.m.

A man with a B.C. connection is alleged to have attacked US house speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul.

According to an online account from CNN, David DePape, 42, was identified by police on October 28 as the suspect in the assault on Pelosi at the family’s San Francisco home.

A call was placed by Glacier Media to Gene DePape, David’s stepfather, who lives and works in Powell River region. Gene was not reached directly, but an unidentified woman on the phone indicated that Gene was trying to make contact with police in San Francisco and would not be commenting until he’d had a conversation regarding the arrest.

According to the CNN account, Gene stated that David grew up in Powell River and left Canada about 20 years ago to pursue a relationship that brought him to California.

Glacier Media has also reached out to the suspect’s uncle, Mark DePape, but has not heard back.

David, according to CNN, had extensive social media posts, including Facebook, which has taken down the account. The Facebook account apparently had links that David had posted with links to videos about the 2020 US election, and websites claiming COVID-19 vaccines were deadly., according to CNN.

CNN also stated that David had posted links to YouTube videos regarding the January 6, 2021 riot on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

DePape is in custody in San Francisco.