Paul Pelosi bodycam video: Footage of hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband released
Watch the police bodycam footage capturing the hammer attack at the Pelosi home
Footage of the hammer attack on former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband has been released by a Californian court.
The body-camera video shows suspect David DePape and 82-year-old Paul Pelosi both holding onto a hammer as they answer the door to the police.
When police tell them to drop the hammer DePape can be seen ripping it out of Mr Pelosi's hand and striking him with it.
Police bodycam footage then captures officers rushing into the house, overpowering, and arresting DePape.
Pelosi, apparently unconscious, can be seen lying face down on the floor in his pyjama top and underwear.
Officials later said he woke up in a pool of his own blood.
The bodycam footage recorded by police officers was released by San Francisco County Superior Court on Friday after a group of US news agencies sought access to evidence prosecutors played in court during a preliminary hearing last month.
The evidence includes portions of Mr Pelosi’s 911 call on October 28 last year.
DePape has pleaded not guilty in ongoing state and federal cases.
He is being held in jail without bail. He faces charges including attempted murder, elder abuse, and assaulting an immediate family member of a federal official.
Ms Pelosi was in Washington at the time and under the protection of her security detail, which does not extend to family members.Her husband of nearly 60 years later underwent surgery to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands.
He has since appeared in public wearing a hat and a glove that covered his wounds.The police have said DePape didn’t regret the attack even though it was not on Mrs Pelosi, his intended target.
DePape told police he was going after Mrs Pelosi for lying to the American public and that he planned to hold her hostage for her crimes.
He believed the discredited conspiracy that Democrats stole the 2020 election from Trump.
He said he was surprised to find Paul Pelosi in the house.
DePape said he planned to tie Paul Pelosi up so he could get some sleep, because carrying a heavy backpack to the home had tired him out.
Nancy Pelosi speaks to reporters about the bodycam footage after its release
Mrs Pelosi said: "He is making progress, but it will take more time. There was a release of some information, I have not heard the 911 call. I have not heard the confession. I have not seen the break-in. And I have absolutely no intention of seeing the deadly assault on my husband's life."
When asked why he did not leave when he realised Mrs Pelosi wasn’t home and the police were on the way, he compared himself to the Founding Fathers.
"They fought the British, they fought the tyranny. They didn’t just (expletive) surrender to it. And when I left my house, I went to go fight tyranny, I did not leave to go surrender," he said.
Following the clip's release, Mrs Pelosi said she was aware of the footage but had no intention of watching the "deadly" attack on her husband.
The US Capitol Police investigated nearly 10,000 threats to members of Congress last year, more than twice the number from four years earlier.
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