There Are Still Questions About The Pelosi Attack

As I noted earlier this week, many of the original questions about David DePape's assault on Paul Pelosi arose from the poorly written account SFPD Chief Scott originally gave of the event, made worse by at least two subsequent "clarifications" that raised more questions than they answered. For now, it seems as though we have a version of the attack that's more or less reliable in its general outlines: David DePape, a disorganized psychotic, was able to bypass the home's security, break in via a rear door, surprise Pelosi while he was sleeping, and engage in an incoherent exchange that gave Pelosi the opportunity to pick up a phone and call 911. The 911 operator, sensing something was wrong as Pelosi sought to communicate in code, caused the police dispatcher to declare an emergency, at which point the police quickly arrived.

This set of events took place within the span of a few minutes. There seems to be no reason to doubt that DePape and Pelosi did not know each other prior to the attack. However, DePape's disorganized mental state also indicates that he could not have made or executed any sort of sophisticated plan for the attack, and he succeeded only due to the ineffectiveness of the security measures surrounding the Speaker's family. That continues to be the biggest question arising from the event.

There's a second question, or set of questions, though, that's also emerged from the now established version. On Tuesday, I quoted from the FBI criminal complaint that more or less answers how the tableau that greeted the police at the open door to the home came about:

DEPAPE stated that they went downstairs to the front door. The police arrived and knocked on the door, and Pelosi ran over and opened it. Pelosi grabbed onto DEPAPE’s hammer, which was in DEPAPE’s hand.

. . . DEPAPE stated that he pulled the hammer away from Pelosi and swung the hammer towards Pelosi.

My question at the time was why, in fear of at least his safety if not his life, Pelosi didn't take advantage of having his hand on the door to hang on to it as it opened and swing around outside to be with the police -- whom I assume had announced themsevles as they knocked, as they do on OP Live. Instead, as best we can tell from the current version, he apparently noticed that DePape had a hammer, which hasn't appeared in the account prior to the police arriving, and began to struggle for it with DePape. DePape, 40 years younger than Pelosi, grabbed the hammer away and proceeded to strike Pelosi in the head with it.

Meanwhile, the police, who had arrived because the dispatcher declared an emergency, stood at the open door and didn't enter the house until DePape struck Pelosi with the hammer, at which point they tackled DePape and arrested him. This also doesn't make sense. The general rule of thumb, which is often explained on OP Live and similar shows, is that police can't enter a home without either permission or a warrant, with a few exceptions. One of the big ones is if there are "exigent circumstances", which in California can include a residential burglary in progress or the risk of danger to law enforcement officers or to others inside the property. The FBI criminal complaint says this about the scene:

At 2:31 a.m., San Francisco Police Department (“SFPD”) Officer Colby Wilmes responded to the Pelosi residence, California and knocked on the front door. When the door was opened, Pelosi and DEPAPE were both holding a hammer with one hand and DEPAPE had his other hand holding onto Pelosi’s forearm. Pelosi greeted the officers. The officers asked them what was going on. DEPAPE responded that everything was good. Officers then asked Pelosi and DEPAPE to drop the hammer.

DEPAPE pulled the hammer from Pelosi’s hand and swung the hammer, striking Pelosi in the head. Officers immediately went inside and were able to restrain DEPAPE.

As far as I can see, the officers had full legal authority, given the reported emergency and DePape's unexplained presence (not to mention the visible struggle over the hammer), to enter the home well before DePape swung the hammer, although every account of the seconds surrounding Pelosi's opening of the door is confusing. I think it's in the interest of clarity and transparency to release body cam footage of the incident, as well as security footage from the home entryway, which we now know exists if only because the Capitol Police ignored it as it happened on their live feed.

This leaves aside the whole open question that I raised at the top of this post, why a delusional psychotic was able to bypass existing security. It appears that conventional electronic door security that would have alerted Pelosi and the police to DePape's break-in hadn't been armed, although Pelosi was alone in the house at 2:30 AM -- and a Capitol Police officer tasked with monitoring the live feed had also neglected his duty. This will in fact need investigating.