OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Several neighbors and others who know David DePape, the man accused of assaulting Paul Pelosi in his home last week, have provided more background on his life and history, details of which are quite chilling.
According to the New York Post, some neighbors described the suspect as “homeless,” though the outlet said he was living in a “dilapidated” school bus that was parked outside the home of “notorious Bay Area nudist and left-wing activist Gypsy Taub.” Neighbor Ryan La Coste told the outlet that the Post that DePape “usually kept to himself.” La Coste noted further: “He would just give us a blank stare when we would walk by. We tried to stay clear of him.”
“Another crazy story coming from someone in that house,” La Coste said. “They are always on the news and trying to be ‘activists.’ They always want to be in the spotlight.”
Margarita Gonzalez, another of DePape’s neighbors, told The Post that she never saw the suspect actually committing violence, but said it’s possible he has mental health issues.
“He never had work,” Gonzalez said. “Maybe there’s a mental problem with him.”
Journalist Michael Shellenberger wrote separately on his Substack page that, despite Democrats and the left claiming DePape is a right-wing nutjob, “it’s obvious to anyone who looks that what drove David DePape to violence was drug-induced paranoid psychosis.”
The media are portraying the suspect in the attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband as a man fundamentally driven by right-wing ideology. But it's obvious to anyone who looks that what drove David DePape to violence was drug-induced paranoid psychosis.https://t.co/qfs5zHokni
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 29, 2022
Also, “DePape’s politics have little rhyme or reason,” Shellenberger noted on his Substack page. “In past years DePape shared a post about Stephen Colbert’s 2006 roast of President George W. Bush at the White House Correspondents dinner; linked to videos of Disney films altered to make it look like the characters were swearing; and claimed, ‘Jesus is the anti-Christ’ — not exactly a litany of right-wing tropes.”
He also described the area surrounding DePape’s school bus ‘home.’
“In the driveway, there is a broken-down camper van. On the street is a yellow school bus, which neighbors said DePape occasionally stayed in. Both are filled with garbage typical of such structures in homeless encampments,” he wrote. “People come and go from the house and the vehicles, neighbors say, in part to partake in the use of a potent psychedelic drug, ibogaine.”
A neighbor who identified as “Trish” told Shellenberger: “What I know about the family is that they’re very radical activists.”
“They seem very left. They are all about the Black Lives Matter movement. Gay pride. But they’re very detached from reality. They have called the cops on several of the neighbors, including us, claiming that we are plotting against them. It’s really weird to see that they are willing to be so aggressive toward somebody else who is also a lefty,” she said.
WATCH:
Linda Schneider, who is an acquaintance of the suspect, told San Francisco’s KRON-TV and CNN she met DePape in 2014, and at the time, he was homeless and a drug addict.
“He [was] likely a mindless follower of something he saw on social media because I don’t think he had the courage to be part of any political or terrorist group,” she said, KRON reported. “His drug use began again and he went off his rocker.”
“In truth, DePape is much more like one of the hundreds of psychotic homeless people I’ve interviewed in recent years than the fanatical climate ideologues who I’ve been writing about in recent weeks,” Shellenberger tweeted in several updates.
“Wrapped up in their obsession with MAGA Republicans, journalists have missed the real story. David DePape is not a microcosm of the political psychosis gripping America in general. Rather, he’s a microcosm of the drug-induced psychosis gripping the West Coast in particular,” he added.
“David DePape is not a microcosm of the political psychosis gripping America in general. Rather, he’s a microcosm of the drug-induced psychosis gripping the West Coast in particular,” Shellenberger wrote.
The Wall Street Journal reported that DePape would be arraigned on Tuesday in San Francisco on several felony charges related to his alleged attack on Pelosi.
