Zippers were found at the scene of an intruder’s attack on house speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband at the couple’s California home, San Francisco police said Sunday.
Police did not specify how many cable ties were found and did not discuss their intended purpose. Motive remained under investigation. CNN first reported the presence of restrictions.
The only people in the house early Friday during the violent break-in were Paul Pelosi, 82, and David DePape, 42, who are facing attempted murder and other charges, police said, clarifying comments Police Chief Bill Scott made. during a press conference Friday.
A federal law enforcement source familiar with the investigation said the criminal investigation, led by the San Francisco Police Department, is expected to result in state charges against DePape in San Francisco Superior Court as early as Monday or Tuesday.
Federal investigators continue to conduct a parallel investigation to determine whether DePape will also face federal charges.
Police said officers entered the house early Friday and saw Paul Pelosi and the suspect engaged in a fight over a hammer. When Pelosi released his grip, the attacker jerked and hit Pelosi in the head, they said.
The San Francisco County Attorney’s Office said the suspect entered through the back of the house by forcing a window. He then went up a flight of stairs and confronted Paul Pelosi, the office claimed.
Pelosi was rushed to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, where he had “successful surgery to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands,” the speaker’s office said in a statement Friday.
Pelosi remains in intensive care, surrounded by family members, a source with knowledge of the situation told NBC News early Monday.
The suspect was also hospitalized after the incident and remained there Sunday afternoon, according to the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department. His condition and the exact reasons for his treatment were not available.
Two sources said the intruder was looking for Nancy Pelosi, who was in Washington, DC, at the time of the attack. The sources, one of whom is a senior US official, said that before the attack, the intruder confronted Paul Pelosi and shouted, “Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?”
Blog posts under investigation in connection with DePape highlight expansive and contradictory views, said multiple senior law enforcement officers familiar with the case. The posts take aspects of liberal anti-establishment ideas into more recent posts that take positions typically associated with far-right extremism, the sources said.
DePape turned out to have a website where he wrote a wide variety of posts on almost all modern conspiracy thinking: aliens, Jewish people, communism, vaccines, voter fraud, and many other topics. Many of the posts have been published in recent months.
Maura Barrett, Dennis Romero and Adam Reiss contributed.
