New details are slowly emerging in the bizarre attack on Paul Pelosi, the 82-year-old husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) at the pair’s San Francisco home, and as the Los Angeles Times reports, authorities are crediting the octogenarian victim with tricking his assailant during a 911 call in a way that prompted a faster police response.
The shocking incident, which took place early Friday morning, reportedly left Mr. Pelosi with serious injuries that included a fractured skull, though following surgery over the weekend, sources suggested that he is expected to make a complete recovery.
Cryptic call
According to the Times, the vexing scenario began to unfold in the wee hours of Friday morning, when an individual – later identified as 42-year-old David DePape – broke into the Pelosis’ home in the wealthy Pacific Heights enclave.
Nancy Pelosi was away in Washington, D.C. at the time, leaving only her husband at the house to encounter the apparently unwelcome guest.
Police have revealed that at some point after discovering DePape on the premises, Paul Pelosi indicated that he needed to use the bathroom, at which point he proceeded to contact 911, also continuing to verbally engage with the the man.
Subsequently released communication between the phone dispatcher and a police unit indicates that the former stated, “there’s a male in the home and that he’s going to wait for his wife,” and noted that the man who placed the call “doesn’t know who the male is, but he advise that his name is David and then [said] he is a friend.”
The caller, the dispatcher also observed, “sounded somewhat confused.”
Dispatcher praised
According to the Times, a law enforcement source in San Francisco opined that Mr. Pelosi was purposeful in his choice of language, given that DePape knew he was on the phone, and that he wanted to somehow convey to the dispatcher – identified as Heather Grimes – that he needed a rapid response.
Bill Scott, chief of San Francisco Police, was quick to cite Grimes’ quick thinking as the main reason that it only took responding officers around two minutes to reach the Pelosi residence.
“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 she was being told. Her actions, in my opinion, resulted in both a higher-priority dispatch and a faster police response,” Scott said.
Suspect faces felony charges
Though the police response to Mr. Pelosi’s 911 call was indeed fast, officers entered the property to find the two men struggling overs a hammer, and when then ordered them both to let go of the tool, DePape gained control over it and launched a violent attack on the speaker’s husband before he was brought under control.
Given the brazen and devastating nature of the attack, DePape is set to face charges of attempted homicide, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, as well as a string of other felony offenses, according to CNBC, and as the investigation continues, hopefully new light may be shed on precisely what drove this act of condemnable violence.