Suspect In Assault At Pelosi Home Had Posted About QAnon

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 hasnt 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.

This was a horrific and scary incident. I have reached out to Speaker Pelosi to offer my support to her and her family. I want to thank the @SFPD and the @SFFDPIO for their quick response to this incident.

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This was a horrific and scary incident. I have reached out to Speaker Pelosi to offer my support to her and her family. I want to thank the @SFPD and the @SFFDPIO for their quick response to this incident.
London Breed (@LondonBreed) October 28, 2022

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 Orwells 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 web hosting service WordPress removed one of the sites Friday afternoon for violating its terms of service.

On a different site, someone posting under DePapes name repeated false claims about COVID vaccines and wearing masks, questioned whether climate change is real and displayed an illustration of a zombified Hillary Clinton dining on human flesh.

I would like to thank Officer Kolby Wilmes, Officer Kyle Cagney, Sergeant Edmund Huang, and Emergency Dispatcher Heather Grives for the swift action in this incident. Please view all the latest information we have at this time below. https://t.co/HaAbsLoljm

SFPD Chief Scott (@SFPDChief) October 29, 2022","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"SFPD Chief Scott","author_url":"https://twitter.com/SFPDChief","cache_age":86400,"description":"I would like to thank Officer Kolby Wilmes, Officer Kyle Cagney, Sergeant Edmund Huang, and Emergency Dispatcher Heather Grives for the swift action in this incident. 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I would like to thank Officer Kolby Wilmes, Officer Kyle Cagney, Sergeant Edmund Huang, and Emergency Dispatcher Heather Grives for the swift action in this incident. Please view all the latest information we have at this time below. https://t.co/HaAbsLoljm
SFPD Chief Scott (@SFPDChief) October 29, 2022

There appeared to be no direct posts about Pelosi, but there were entries defending former President Donald Trump and Ye, the rapper formally known as Kayne West who recently made antisemitic comments.

In other posts, the writer said Jews helped finance Hitlers political rise in Germany and suggested an antisemitic plot was involved in Russias recent invasion of Ukraine.

The more Ukrainians die NEEDLESSLY the cheaper the land will be for Jews to buy up, the post said.

In a Sept. 27 post, the writer said any journalists who denied Trumps false claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election should be dragged straight out into the street and shot.

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AP Global Investigative Reporter Michael Biesecker reported from Washington and Breaking News Investigative Reporter Bernard Condon from New York. Reporters Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles, Olga Rodriguez in San Francisco and news researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed.

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