After reportedly breaking through a rear door in the very early hours of Friday morning, DePape entered the house and at some point confronted Pelosi.
Pelosi excused himself from DePape by saying he needed to use the bathroom. There, he made a surreptitious 911 call on his cellphone, close to 2:30 am. Politico cites sources who say the phone had been charging there.
When directing the police response, the San Francisco Police dispatcher relayed what Pelosi said, referring to him as "RP," which is police jargon for "reporting party":
"RP stated that there’s a male in the home and that he’s going to wait for his wife. RP stated that he doesn’t know who the male is, but he advised that his name is David and that he is a friend. RP sounded somewhat confused."
Police dispatch to Paul Pelosi home:
"RP (reporting person) stated there's a male in the home and that he's going to wait for his wife. RP stated that he doesn't know who the male is but he advised that his name is David and that he is a friend.”
pic.twitter.com/O0HeS0s0I5 — Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 28, 2022
In a police response that's far from typical in America's cities today, cops arrived at the Pelosi house in just about 2 minutes. They knocked, and someone opened the door, though it's not clear who.
The police observed the two men, each with one hand on a single hammer, and ordered both of them to drop it. DePape immediately pulled it from Pelosi and started hitting him with it. The cops tackled DePape and took him into custody.
There's something of an inconsistency in the LA Times characterization of Pelosi's 911 call. The Times article, citing police sources, first reports that Pelosi "tricked" DePape and made a surreptitious phone call, but later, the same article says "officials believe Pelosi was intentionally giving coded information because the intruder knew Pelosi was on the phone."
Perhaps the call started surreptitiously and but then DePape overheard him, or Pelosi was at least wary of it. With that in mind, it's conceivable Pelosi wasn't being sincere in calling DePape a "friend," but rather was trying to soothe the reportedly nutty DePape, who's been described as a "psychotic, homeless addict estranged from his nudist lover and their children" -- and who "talks to angels."
If Pelosi was being overheard or fearful of it, that may also explain why the dispatcher described Pelosi as sounding "somewhat confused." At Friday's press conference, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said dispatcher Heather Grimes had to read between the lines of Pelosi's call for help:
“She had to interpret what she was being told. And based on her experience and intuition, she basically figured out that there was something more to this incident than what she was being told. Her actions, in my opinion, resulted in both a higher-priority dispatch and a faster police response.”
Famously, DePape is said to have yelled "Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?" It's not exactly clear when.
There are 3 cameras on one side of Pelosi’s house…. And the cops were there (with body cams) before the assault started.
If anything other than the official narrative is a “wild conspiracy theory,” let’s see the tapes.
https://t.co/7s01ba5VYO pic.twitter.com/vRwXfdum85 — John LeFevre (@JohnLeFevre) October 30, 2022
Pelosi underwent surgery to "repair a skull fracture, and serious injuries to his right arm and hands," according to a statement from Nancy Pelosi's office.
All across social media, one can find assertions that DePape was in his underwear when police arrived, with others saying both he and Pelosi were in their underwear.
Citing "sources," San Francisco Fox affiliate KTVU on Friday reported that DePape was in his underwear. However, KTVU has retracted that claim and posted a correction at the bottom of the article: "An earlier version of this story misstated what clothing the suspect was wearing when officers found him."
There's underwear talk all over Twitter and other platforms, along with people misinterpreting an imprecisely worded early SFPD statement to conclude that both Pelosi and DePape were holding hammers. Caught up in the frenzy, Dinesh D'Souza is among those losing credibility points over the weekend -- even as he racks up tens of thousands of likes:
Were Paul Pelosi and his attacker BOTH in their underwear? BOTH holding hammers? And the attacker didn’t strike until AFTER police were on the scene? As a movie-maker, I gotta say this script must be rejected. Nothing about the public account so far makes any sense. — Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) October 29, 2022
Finally, though Democrats and the media are quick to call the attack an act of political violence, police have not asserted a motive.
Police investigating the Paul Pelosi attack continue to state they *do not know the motive.*
Yet liberal "thought leaders" like @HillaryClinton and @jimmykimmel have decreed that not only is the motive known to them, but only insane or malicious people would question them. pic.twitter.com/g2mmxLG1KF — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 30, 2022
Having got all that out of the way, we note that none of it stopped Hillary Clinton jumping on the bandwagon that it must have been a MAGA, QAnon conspiracy theorist... to which Elon Musk promptly replied...
"There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye..."
Which he has since deleted.
Nevertheless, Glenn Greenwald brings up the elephant in the media's room...
It's so crucial to understand the dynamic dominating journalism. Few journalists have career security.
Imagine you're a young journalist at a big media corporation. You know if you ask these questions, Twitter will explode and it can ruin your career:https://t.co/wzF4FwEDgg — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 30, 2022
Perhaps, instead, Musk should have retweeted this perspective from Michael Shellenberger...
Neighbors described DePape as a homeless addict with a politics that was, until recently, left-wing, but of secondary importance to his psychotic and paranoid behavior.
“What I know about the family is that they’re very radical activists,” said one of DePape’s neighbors, a woman who only gave her first name, Trish.
“They seem very left. They are all about the Black Lives Matter movement. Gay pride. But they’re very detached from reality. They have called the cops on several of the neighbors, including us, claiming that we are plotting against them. It’s really weird to see that they are willing to be so aggressive toward somebody else who is also a lefty.”
Fact or conspiracy aside, the fact that a 'conversation' can be had without #InstaBan occurring seems like a positive step towards the restoration of freedom of speech... and the enabling of Americans to make their own minds up on matters - not be cajoled into one narrative uber alles.