The person accused of breaking into Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s California residence and severely beating her husband with a hammer seems to have made racist and sometimes rambling posts on-line, together with some that questioned the outcomes of the 2020 election, defended former President Donald Trump and echoed QAnon conspiracy theories.
David DePape, 42, grew up in Powell River, British Columbia, earlier than leaving about 20 years in the past to comply with an older girlfriend to San Francisco. A avenue tackle listed for DePape within the Bay Space school city of Berkeley led to a publish workplace field at a UPS Retailer.
DePape was arrested on the Pelosi residence early Friday. San Francisco District Legal professional Brooke Jenkins stated she anticipated to file a number of felony prices, together with tried homicide, assault with a lethal weapon, housebreaking and elder abuse.
Stepfather Gene DePape stated the suspect had lived with him in Canada till he was 14 and had been a quiet boy.
“David was by no means violent that I seen and was by no means in any bother though he was very reclusive and performed an excessive amount of video video games,” Gene DePape stated.
He stated he hasn’t seen his stepson since 2003 and tried to get in contact with him a number of occasions over time with out success.
“In 2007, I attempted to get in contact however his girlfriend hung up on me once I requested to speak to him,“ Gene DePape stated.
David DePape was identified in Berkeley as a pro-nudity activist who had picketed bare at protests towards native ordinances requiring folks to be clothed in public.
Gene DePape stated the girlfriend whom his son adopted to California was named Gypsy they usually had two kids collectively. DePape additionally has a toddler with a distinct lady, his stepfather stated.
Pictures revealed by The San Francisco Chronicle on Friday recognized DePape frolicking nude exterior metropolis corridor with dozens of others on the 2013 wedding ceremony of pro-nudity activist Gypsy Taub, who was marrying one other man. Taub didn’t reply Friday to calls or emails.
A 2013 article in The Chronicle described David DePape as a “hemp jewellery maker” who lived in a Victorian flat in Berkeley with Taub, who hosted a chat present on native public-access TV referred to as “Uncensored 9/11,” by which she appeared bare and pushed conspiracy theories that the 2001 terrorist assaults have been “an inside job.”
A pair of internet blogs posted in current months on-line beneath the title David DePape contained rants about expertise, aliens, communists, spiritual minorities, transexuals and world elites.
An Aug. 24 entry titled “Q,” displayed a scatological assortment of memes that included photographs of the deceased intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein and made reference to QAnon, the baseless pro-Trump conspiracy concept that espouses the assumption that the nation is run by a deep state cabal of kid intercourse traffickers, satanic pedophiles and baby-eating cannibals.
“Huge Brother has deemed doing your personal analysis as a thought crime,” learn a publish that appeared to mix references to QAnon with George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984.”
In an Aug. 25 entry titled “Gun Rights,” the poster wrote: “You not have rights. Your primary human rights hinder Huge Brothers potential to enslave and management you in a whole and totalizing means.”
The website hosting service WordPress eliminated one of many websites Friday afternoon for violating its phrases of service.
On a distinct website, somebody posting beneath DePape’s title repeated false claims about COVID vaccines and sporting masks, questioned whether or not local weather change is actual and displayed an illustration of a zombified Hillary Clinton eating on human flesh.
There gave the impression to be no direct posts about Pelosi, however there have been entries defending former President Donald Trump and Ye, the rapper formally generally known as Kayne West who not too long ago made antisemitic feedback.
In different posts, the author stated Jews helped finance Hitler’s political rise in Germany and advised an antisemitic plot was concerned in Russia’s current invasion of Ukraine.
“The extra Ukrainians die NEEDLESSLY the cheaper the land will likely be for Jews to purchase up,” the publish stated.
In a Sept. 27 publish, the author stated any journalists who denied Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud within the 2020 presidential election “ought to be dragged straight out into the road and shot.”
AP World Investigative Reporter Michael Biesecker reported from Washington and Breaking Information Investigative Reporter Bernard Condon from New York. Reporters Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles, Olga Rodriguez in San Francisco and information researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed.