Who is David DePape — suspect accused of attacking Paul Pelosi?

The man accused of attacking Nancy Pelosi’s husband was ‘consumed by darkness’, according to accounts from people who knew him.Paul Pelosi, 82, was attacked with a hammer on Friday by an intruder, identified by the authorities as 42-year-old David DePape. People who knew him said he had all the indications of a troubled individual and signs of politically fueled hate, reported The New York Times.Declaring his intentions to wait for Ms Pelosi’s return who was in Washington DC at the time, the accused demanded to know ‘where is Nancy?’ – a cry sharply reminiscent of the Capitol attack when similar echoes were heard.Police said Mr DePape smashed his way through a rear door of the Pelosi residence wielding a hammer shortly before 2.30am, Friday. Mr Pelosi called 911 himself and when police arrived they found him struggling with the assailant. The man managed to strike Mr Pelosi at least once with the hammer before he was tackled by officers and arrested, police said.He also had multiple zip ties and duct tape, according to the existing media reports. The man, who remains in custody, is likely to face charges of attempted homicide as well as assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, burglary and other felonies in relation to the attack, said San Francisco Police chief William Scott.’Our children, our grandchildren and I are heartbroken and traumatized by the life-threatening attack on our Pop,’ Ms Pelosi said in a statement released on Saturday evening.’Please know that the outpouring of prayers and warm wishes from so many in Congress is a comfort to our family and is helping Paul make progress with his recovery. His condition continues to improve.’Mr Pelosi underwent successful surgery to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands sustained in the attack, Ms Pelosi’s spokesman Drew Hammill said on Friday.Mr DePape, a resident of Berkeley, California, appeared to be immersed in a toxic online culture of far-right conspiracy theories, and had published a subscription-based blog where he expressed a range of transphobic, antisemitic and racist views, according to posts reviewed by The Independent. He also posted about conspiracy theories tied to Covid-19 and QAnon, among others.People who knew him at different points in time in his life, revealed him to be shy. According to Linda Schneider, 65, who knew him for a couple of years from 2009 when she was running an urban farm in the East Bay area said, Mr DePape would help her with the chickens, she told The New York Times.Recalling him to be easygoing and shy, Ms Schneider said, he used to live out of a storage unit in Berkeley and make hemp bracelets. She said, though he had been using hard drugs but was trying to do better.’He wouldn’t even have a bank account because he was terrified of talking to a teller,’ she said.Ms Schneider, decided to stop speaking with him after she received ‘really disturbing’ emails from DePape in which he sounded like a ‘megalomaniac and so out of touch with reality,’ she said. ‘He [was] likely a mindless follower of something he saw on social media because I don’t think he had the courage to be part of any political or terrorist group,’ Ms Schneider told local outlet Kron4. ‘His drug use began again and he went off his rocker.’Mr DePape was a ‘good kid’ and had some friends, but not a lot, said Teresa DePape, who married his stepfather Gene DePape.An acquaintance told CNN that he seemed ‘out of touch with reality’.