Neighbor Describes What Paul Pelosi's Alleged Attacker Did Before Violence Erupted: 'He Would Just Give Us a Blank Stare'

By Ryan Ledendecker October 30, 2022 at 11:52am

As the media and pundits attempt to uncover the political leanings of David DePape, the man arrested in Friday’s attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, many observers have noted one clear aspect of the disturbing situation:

DePape likely suffers from untreated, severe mental illness.

It’ll take some time to learn DePape’s motives behind the brutal attack against 82-year-old Paul Pelosi in the middle of the night. Still, the New York Post rounded up described interviews with several of DePape’s former neighbors, who told similar stories about the man.

Neighbors described DePape as “homeless,” with the Post adding that he lived in a “dilapidated” school bus parked outside of the home of “notorious Bay Area nudist and left-wing activist Gypsy Taub.”

Ryan La Coste, one of DePape’s neighbors, told the Post that DePape “he usually kept to himself.” He added, “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.”

The Post interviewed another of DePape’s neighbors, Margarita Gonzalez, who told the outlet that she had never witnessed DePape commit violence, but suggested he could be mentally ill.

“He never had work,” Gonzalez said. “Maybe there’s a mental problem with him.”

Journalist and author Michael Shellenberger, writing in a separate article in the Post, described interviews with others who know the man.

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

Shellenberger described the disturbing environment at the residence where DePape’s bus is parked, which is littered with various left-wing slogans and signs.

“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.”

“What I know about the family is that they’re very radical activists,” a neighbor, identified only as “Trish,” told Shellenberger.

“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.”

An acquaintance, identified as Linda Schneider, told San Francisco’s KRON-TV and CNN that she met DePape in 2014, and at the time, he was a homeless, 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,” Schneider said, according to KRON. “His drug use began again and he went off his rocker.”

The information the Post and Shellenberger collected from those close to DePape points to the likelihood that severe and untreated mental illness, combined with years of hard drug abuse, could have been behind the attack on Pelosi.

Was this attack the result of untreated mental illness?

Shellenberger continued with the kind of observations that have made him unpopular with the leftist set.

“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 a series of updates regarding DePape’s disturbing background.

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.

— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) October 29, 2022

“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 tweeted.

DePape is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday on several felony charges, according to The Wall Street Journal.

It was reported Sunday by ABC News that Paul Pelosi is still in the hospital, but on the road to recovery after the violent attack.

Submit a Correction →