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Released Body-Cam Footage Shows Paul Pelosi Attack

A screenshot from the body-cam footage / Reuters
January 27, 2023

A police officer's body-cam footage showing the October attack on Paul Pelosi was released on Friday.

The video shows officers walking to Pelosi's door, which opens to show attacker David DePape holding a hammer and grabbing Pelosi. After an officer asks what's happening, DePape says that "everything's good." Officers then see DePape's hammer and tell him to drop it.

"Um, nope," DePape says. He then hits Pelosi in the head, prompting police to rush in and subdue him.

DePape attacked Pelosi, the husband of then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), at the Pelosis' San Francisco home on Oct. 28. Paul Pelosi underwent surgery for a skull fracture and reappeared in public in December. A San Francisco judge ordered the footage released, denying a request from DePape's public defender to withhold the evidence from the public.

Police also released audio of Pelosi's 911 call, in which he tries to tell a dispatcher that an assailant is holding him against his will.

"This gentleman just came into my house," Pelosi says in the call. "He's… He's telling me not to, he's telling me not to do anything."

The dispatcher does not appear to understand, at one point saying she will hang up.

Later in the call, Pelosi says, "He's telling me to put the phone down and, uh, just do what he says. OK?"

DePape was listening to the call, at one point telling the dispatcher that his name is "David."

Other released footage includes the surveillance footage of DePape breaking into the Pelosis' home and DePape's police interview. DePape during the interview told officers that he wanted to harm Nancy Pelosi because she represented "evil in Washington," Politico reported. Nancy Pelosi was in Washington, D.C., at the time of the attack.

DePape has pleaded not guilty.