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Bay Area


PAUL PELOSI’S SECRET 911 CALL — AND AN ALERT S.F. DISPATCHER — MAY HAVE SAVED
HIS LIFE

Megan Cassidy, Demian Bulwa, Danielle Echeverria, Rachel Swan
Oct. 29, 2022Updated: Oct. 29, 2022 8:50 p.m.


This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

6
1of6

Attack suspect David DePape is hospitalized and is expected to be arraigned
Tuesday.

Michael ShortShow MoreShow Less 2of6

A police car patrols outside the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in San
Francisco’s Pacific Heights on Saturday, the day after an intruder violently
attacked husband Paul Pelosi there.

Stephen Lam, photographer / The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less 3of6

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins discusses the assault alongside
Police Chief Bill Scott.

Lea Suzuki / The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less 4of6

Paul and Nancy Pelosi attend Mass in Rome in June.

SOPA Images, Contributor / SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesShow MoreShow
Less 5of6

The attack suspect is being treated at San Francisco General Hospital.

Ethan Swope, Staff / The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less 6of6

Paul Pelosi Jr., son of U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Paul
Pelosi, exits his parent’s home the day after an intruder violently attacked
Paul Pelosi at home in San Francisco, Calif. Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022.

Stephen Lam, photographer / The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
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In the span of a few crucial minutes, Paul Pelosi may have saved his own life —
with the help of an alert San Francisco dispatcher.

The 82-year-old husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears to have secretly
dialed 911 and left the phone line open after a man busted into the couple’s
Pacific Heights home looking for his wife, reportedly asking, “Where is Nancy?”

What Paul Pelosi said enabled the dispatcher, at 2:32 a.m. Friday, to elevate
the call to an emergency, according to police officials and police audio
dispatches.



Two minutes later, Officers Kolby Wilmes and Kyle Cagney arrived at the front
door, officials said. They tackled the intruder, identified as 42-year-old East
Bay resident David DePape, moments after he allegedly struck Paul Pelosi with a
hammer, leaving him in need of surgery to repair a fractured skull and injuries
to his right arm and hands.

Paul Pelosi is expected to make a full recovery after the bizarre episode, which
comes as his wife plays an increasingly central role in far-right conspiracy
theories such as the QAnon mass delusion. DePape, a former Green party member
and nudism advocate who appears to have undergone a radical political
conversion, had filled websites with these theories along with bigoted screeds
directed at people of color, women, Jewish people and others.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, said that he believes
these online conspiracies are inciting people to violence, and that politicians
like himself and Pelosi, who are particularly reviled by the right wing, have
become targets.

On Saturday, the speaker issued her first public statement since the attack,
saying, “Our children, our grandchildren and I are heartbroken and traumatized
by the life-threatening attack on our Pop.” She expressed gratitude for “the
quick response of law enforcement and emergency services, and for the
life-saving medical care he is receiving,” as well as for “the outpouring of
prayers and warm wishes from so many in Congress.”

Complete details of what happened inside the Pelosis’ stately home on Broadway
remain unknown. But what transpired in those key moments led San Francisco
Police Chief Bill Scott and District Attorney Brooke Jenkins to laud the
emergency dispatcher, Heather Grives, who took Paul Pelosi’s call.

“When you have an experienced dispatcher with good instincts, they learn how to
read between the lines,” Scott said. “She knew something more was going on, just
in her heart and her intuition, just with her experience.”

Paul Pelosi Attack
 * Nancy Pelosi breaks silence and releases response to attack on her husband
   
 * Attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband shows violent escalation of rhetoric
   painting her as enemy No. 1
   



“I want to thank 911 dispatcher Heather Grives, who took the call from Mr.
Pelosi, instinctually realized that something was wrong, and immediately called
police to respond,” Jenkins said. “Thanks to her quick decision, officers Kolby
Wilmes and Kyle Cagney responded within two minutes and apprehended Mr. DePape
and likely saved Mr. Pelosi’s life.”

There is no indication on the tapes that police knew immediately the incident
was occurring at the home of one of the nation’s most powerful politicians.

Arrested at the scene, DePape was booked on suspicion of several criminal counts
including attempted murder. Scott said DePape was hospitalized, but would not
say whether he was receiving medical or psychiatric treatment, or both. Kelvin
Wu, a spokesperson for San Francisco County, added Saturday that DePape remained
“locked up” at the hospital.

Notably, police, without elaborating, accused DePape of dissuading a witness
from reporting a crime and damaging a communication device to prevent someone
from using it to seek help. The latter allegation is often used in cases where a
phone is taken or smashed.

Jenkins seeks to file formal charges Monday, and DePape is expected to be
arraigned Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court.

“Violence like this has no place in San Francisco, or our politics, and we will
hold Mr. DePape accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” Jenkins said
Saturday in a statement.

Scott, speaking at a news conference Friday night, said authorities received
Paul Pelosi’s 911 call at 2:28 a.m., after DePape forced entry into the back of
the home. The chief did not say how much time may have transpired between the
break-in and the call.

Scott also did not comment on reports that Paul Pelosi had told the intruder he
needed to go to the bathroom before surreptitiously calling 911.

In any event, according to audio of the city’s police radio communications, a
dispatcher working with Grives broadcast at 2:28 a.m. that a 911 caller had
“stated there’s a male in the home and that he’s going to wait for his wife.”

The 911 caller “stated that he doesn’t know who the male is but he (the
intruder) advised that his name is David and that he is a friend.” The
dispatcher said the caller “sounded somewhat confused.”

Scott said the dispatcher who received the call was suspicious enough about what
she heard from Paul Pelosi that she boosted the priority from a “well-being
check” to a “Code 3” emergency. The chief suggested Saturday morning that Pelosi
was trying to give indications that something was wrong without directly saying
it in front of the suspect.

Records show the emergency was broadcast at 2:32 a.m., and that officers arrived
two minutes after that.


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“She just knew there was more to it,” Scott said of the dispatcher.

When police arrived, they knocked on the front door, prompting someone inside —
it’s not clear who — to open it, the chief said. Through the open door, officers
— still standing outside — saw Paul Pelosi and the suspect in the entryway, each
with a hand on a hammer, Scott said. Officers ordered both men to drop the
hammer.

“Mr. DePape immediately pulled the hammer away from Mr. Pelosi and violently
attacked him with the hammer,” Scott said. “The officers immediately entered,
tackled the suspect, disarmed him and took the hammer away from him.”

Seconds elapsed between the moment the door opened and the bludgeoning, Scott
said Saturday, during a news conference with Mayor London Breed and Jenkins in
Chinatown.

Roughly an hour before the Chinatown event, a convoy of black sport utility
vehicles pulled into San Francisco General Hospital, where Pelosi is
recuperating from emergency surgery.

Speaker Pelosi and her son, Paul Jr., emerged from the vehicles but did not
address reporters. Sheriff squad cars surrounded the politician, protecting her
from onlookers. Also guarding the hospital were officers from the U.S. Capitol
Police force and the SFPD.

Around 2 p.m. Paul Jr. left the hospital, carrying two oranges. A reporter
called out to him as he walked through security, asking how his father was
doing, and he answered, “So far so good, so far so good.” But he did not
elaborate further.

A day after the stunning incident, investigators were still piecing together
timelines, Scott cautioned. The officers’ body cameras documented the encounter,
but their footage was not immediately released.

Local politicians are “rattled,” the chief said, and some fear they too could be
vulnerable.

San Francisco Chronicle SFNext social media editor Audrey Brown contributed to
this report.

Megan Cassidy, Demian Bulwa, Danielle Echeverria and Rachel Swan are San
Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com,
demian.bulwa@sfchronicle.com, danielle.echeverria@sfchronicle.com,
rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy, @demianbulwa, @DanielleEchev,
@rachelswan







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Written By
Megan Cassidy
Reach Megan on

Megan Cassidy is a crime reporter with The Chronicle, also covering cops,
criminal justice issues and mayhem. Previously, Cassidy worked for the Arizona
Republic covering Phoenix police, Sheriff Joe Arpaio and desert-area crime and
mayhem. She is a two-time graduate of the University of Missouri, and has
additionally worked at the Casper Star-Tribune, National Geographic and an
online publication in Buenos Aires. Cassidy can be reached on twitter at
@meganrcassidy, and will talk about true crime as long as you'll let her.

Written By
Demian Bulwa
Reach Demian on

Demian Bulwa oversees the news operation, including metro, politics, business,
sports and investigative reporting, and co-hosts the "Fifth & Mission" podcast.
He is a former metro editor and longtime reporter at the paper whose chief
topics included policing, civil rights, public corruption and big-wave surfing.

Read more about the "Fifth & Mission" podcast here.

Written By
Danielle Echeverria
Reach Danielle on

Danielle Echeverria is a reporter for The Chronicle's Engagement and Breaking
News team. She recently completed her Master's degree in journalism at Stanford
University, where she won the Nicholas Roosevelt Environmental Journalism Award
for her reporting and covered agriculture, climate change and worker safety. She
previously interned The Chronicle on the Business desk, as well as at Big Local
News, focusing on data journalism. She is originally from Bakersfield,
California.

Written By
Rachel Swan
Reach Rachel on

Rachel Swan is a breaking news and enterprise reporter. She joined the Chronicle
in 2015 after stints at several alt weekly newspapers. Born in Berkeley, she
graduated from Cal with a degree in rhetoric and is now raising two daughters in
El Cerrito.


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