- Former San Francisco city official attacked homeless person with bear spray minutes prior to metal pipe attack, public defender says CNN
- Attorney says man charged with beating former San Francisco commissioner was defending himself CBS Mornings
- New questions and confusion surround San Francisco pipe attack as alleged victim suddenly becomes accused Fox News
- Public Defender calls on DA to drop charges in fire commissioner assault case – 48 hills 48 Hills
- Former SF fire commissioner attacked with pipe accused of violence against homeless people KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco
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Tag Archives: attacked
Former SF fire commissioner attacked with pipe accused of using bear spray on homeless people – KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco
- Former SF fire commissioner attacked with pipe accused of using bear spray on homeless people KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco
- New questions and confusion surround San Francisco pipe attack as alleged victim suddenly becomes accused Fox News
- Attorney says man charged with beating former San Francisco commissioner was defending himself CBS Mornings
- Suspect Garret Allen Doty acted in self-defense in attack on former San Francisco fire commissioner Don Carmignani, attorney says KGO-TV
- Former SF fire commissioner attacked with pipe accused of violence against homeless people KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco
Ex-San Francisco fire commissioner attacked homeless people with bear spray, attorneys say – KRON4
- Ex-San Francisco fire commissioner attacked homeless people with bear spray, attorneys say KRON4
- San Francisco Drops Case against Homeless Man Who Beat Former City Official with a Crowbar Yahoo News
- Charges may be dropped in brutal attack on former San Francisco Fire Commissioner in Marina District KPIX | CBS NEWS BAY AREA
- SF D.A. to drop charges against man arrested for former fire commissioner’s beating, attorney says KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco
- Ex-San Francisco official hospitalized in pipe beatdown says charges to be dropped against homeless suspect Fox News
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Riley Gaines, outspoken critic of transgender athletes, says she was attacked during SFSU event – ABC7 News Bay Area
- Riley Gaines, outspoken critic of transgender athletes, says she was attacked during SFSU event ABC7 News Bay Area
- Former college swimmer says she was assaulted at an event opposing the inclusion of trans women in women’s sports CNN
- Riley Gaines defiant after ‘terrifying’ encounter pro-trans protesters: I won’t be silenced Fox News
- SFSU students protest speech by former college swimmer opposed to trans athletes competing KPIX | CBS NEWS BAY AREA
- Ex-NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines posts video of confrontation with protesters CNN
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‘Save Women’s Sports’ advocate Riley Gaines says she was attacked after speech at SFSU – KRON4
- ‘Save Women’s Sports’ advocate Riley Gaines says she was attacked after speech at SFSU KRON4
- Riley Gaines, outspoken critic of transgender athletes, says she was attacked during SFSU event ABC7 News Bay Area
- Riley Gaines ‘ambushed and physically hit’ after Saving Women’s Sports speech at San Francisco State Fox News
- Swimmer Riley Gaines ‘ambushed,’ ‘physically hit’ KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco
- Former college swimmer says she was assaulted at an event opposing the inclusion of trans women in women’s sports CNN
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Seattle woman vanishes after Mariners game, man arrested and son attacked by stranger at 2 a.m., source says – FOX 13 Seattle
- Seattle woman vanishes after Mariners game, man arrested and son attacked by stranger at 2 a.m., source says FOX 13 Seattle
- Arrest Made in Disappearance of Woman Missing After Seattle Mariners Game PEOPLE
- Tragic Leticia Martinez update as ‘kidnap and murder’ suspect arrested after mom went missing from Seattle… The US Sun
- Investigation of missing Seattle woman last seen at Mariners game resembles 2016 murder case KING5.com
- Man arrested in connection to woman’s disappearance after Seattle Mariners game | FOX 13 Seattle FOX 13 Seattle
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‘Jeopardy!’ fans feel attacked by this young player’s ‘obsolete’ hobby – USA TODAY
- ‘Jeopardy!’ fans feel attacked by this young player’s ‘obsolete’ hobby USA TODAY
- Gen Z ‘Jeopardy!’ contestant shocks fans with ‘obsolete’ hobby of collecting DVDs: ‘Gonna go jump off a cliff’ Fox News
- ‘Jeopardy!’ player stuns fans with cringey hobby: ‘I know I’m old’ New York Post
- Jeopardy! fans think they know who will win student tournament as player Caleb Richmond ‘dominates’ des… The US Sun
- ‘Jeopardy!’s High School Reunion Tournament Crowns Final Semifinalist Ahead of Next Phase TV Insider
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Body camera footage shows moment Paul Pelosi was attacked with hammer
The tapes illuminate a harrowing sequence: Pelosi alerting a 911 dispatcher of an armed man who was feet away, listening to the call and interjecting comments; DePape beating Pelosi in plain view of the officers; and DePape, after his arrest, describing his plans to kidnap and snap the bones of the then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Clips of the break-in and assault at the Pelosi home in San Francisco before dawn on Oct. 28 were shown in court last month but, until now, had been otherwise shielded from view.
Wild rumors, amplified by conservative activists and bloggers, had surged after the 2 a.m. attack 11 days before the 2022 midterm elections, and the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office argued that unsealing video and audio could fuel more misinformation while risking DePape’s right to a fair trial. Someone, for instance, could edit the clips to manipulate audiences on social media.
But Murphy ruled that footage playing in a public courtroom should be handed to the media.
“These are open facts. They are known facts,” said Thomas Burke, a lawyer representing the coalition of news organizations that pushed for access to the evidence, including The Post. “The public’s right of access should not be dependent on conspiracy theories.”
The internet gossip had spread rapidly to Capitol Hill, where Republican officials groundlessly cast doubt on 82-year-old Paul Pelosi’s account of the violence and referenced baseless homophobic conspiracy theories.
Prosecutors, however, have said that what happened was clear — and that DePape himself outlined his actions in tapes like those just publicly released.
“The most stark evidence of planning and motive in this case were the statements of the defendant himself,” San Francisco Assistant District Attorney Phoebe Maffei said at the December hearing.
In the now-public interview with police, DePape told an investigator: “I’m not trying to get away with this. I know exactly what I did.”
The audio and videos, part of a large cache of evidence authorities have gathered against DePape, further debunk the claims made by far-right actors, mainstream politicians and Twitter owner Elon Musk, who used his platform to spread misinformation before backpedaling hours later.
Some claimed that DePape, whose descent into extremism is laid out in a long online trail, was not animated by radical right-wing politics; others said, without evidence, that DePape hadn’t actually broken into the house.
But in his interview with police, DePape says he was trying to punish Nancy Pelosi for what he called the Democratic Party’s “lies” and “crimes.” Also included in the tranche of released evidence was a six-minute video capturing the moment DePape broke in through a back door.
The black-and-white security-camera video shows DePape banging a hammer against the door until he is able to enter.
Musk, along with Republicans like former president Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), who each trafficked in the conspiracy theories after the attack, did not address the recordings that undercut many of their earlier claims.
Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill on Friday afternoon, Nancy Pelosi said she has not reviewed any of the newly released evidence and will not do so.
“I have not heard the 911 call. I have not heard the confession,” she said. “I have not seen the break-in, and I have absolutely no intention of seeing the deadly assault on my husband’s life.”
DePape’s public defender, Adam Lipson, said the decision to release the tapes was “a terrible mistake.”
“Releasing this footage is disrespectful to Mr. Pelosi, and serves no purpose except to feed the public desire for spectacle and violence,” Lipson said in a statement. “The footage is inflammatory and could feed unfounded theories about this case, and we are extremely concerned about Mr. DePape’s ability to get a fair trial.”
DePape was 42 at the time of his arrest, and he told police that he showed up at the Pelosis’ home in San Francisco’s upscale Pacific Heights neighborhood because Nancy Pelosi was “the ‘leader of the pack’ of lies told by the Democratic Party.”
He said he planned to hold her hostage and break her kneecaps if she lied to him to “show other members of Congress there were consequences to actions.”
But Pelosi was in Washington that day. It was her husband who woke to the intruder carrying a hammer, zip ties, rope and a roll of tape. Paul Pelosi talked to DePape before managing to go to the bathroom and call 911, authorities said.
He appeared to choose his words carefully.
“Okay, well, I got a problem, but he thinks everything is good,” Pelosi told the dispatcher, according to a recording played at a December hearing.
Eventually, both men went downstairs. When police arrived, Paul Pelosi opened the door.
The shaky body-camera footage shows Pelosi and DePape standing in the entrance, each with a hand on the hammer.
“Drop the hammer,” one officer says.
“Um, nope,” DePape responds before striking Pelosi.
Pelosi fell to the ground, the video shows. Blood seeped onto the floor around his head as officers tackled DePape.
Pelosi, who was hospitalized with a fractured skull and injuries to his right arm and hands, is expected to make a full recovery. DePape has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges that include attempted murder.
The attack and the targeting of the House speaker reinvigorated concerns about the nation’s deeply polarized political culture. The longtime congresswoman has long been demonized by Republicans, and rioters yelled that they were searching for her while rushing U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Groundless conspiracy theories appeared to have motivated DePape, who had published online rants full of racist and antisemitic themes. He had compiled a list of other targets, he told investigators, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and President Biden’s son Hunter Biden.
“It’s an endless f—ing crime spree,” DePape said in the interview with Sgt. Carla Hurley of the San Francisco police shortly after getting arrested.
Marianna Sotomayor contributed to this report.
Dozens injured and police stations attacked as protests continue in Peru | Peru
Dozens of Peruvians were injured when tensions flared again on Friday night as police clashed with protesters in anti-government demonstrations that are spreading across the country.
In the capital, Lima, police officers used teargas to repel demonstrators throwing glass bottles and stones, as fires burned in the streets, TV footage showed.
In the southern Puno region about 1,500 protesters attacked a police station in the town of Ilave, said the interior minister, Vicente Romero. A police station in Zepita, Puno, was also on fire, he said.
Health authorities in Ilave reported eight patients hospitalised with injuries, including broken arms and legs, eye contusions and punctured abdomens.
By late afternoon, 58 people had been injured nationwide in demonstrations, according to a report from Peru’s ombudsman.
The unrest followed a day of turmoil on Thursday, when one of Lima’s most historic buildings burned to the ground, as President Dina Boluarte vowed to get tougher on “vandals”.
The destruction of the building, a near-century-old mansion in central Lima, was described by officials as the loss of a “monumental asset”. Authorities are investigating the causes.
Romero on Friday claimed the blaze was “duly planned and arranged”.
Thousands of protesters descended on Lima this week calling for change and angered by the protests’ mounting death toll, which officially stood at 45 on Friday.
At the beginning of the Friday’s protests, the demonstrators seemed more organised than the previous day and they took over key roads in downtown Lima.
Police appeared more combative than the day before and after standing watch over protesters that had been blocked into downtown streets, they started firing volleys of teargas.
Protests have rocked Peru since Pedro Castillo was ousted as president in December after he attempted to dissolve the legislature to prevent an impeachment vote.
Boluarte has dismissed calls for her to resign and hold snap elections, instead calling for dialogue and promising to punish those involved in the unrest.
In the Cusco region, Glencore’s major Antapaccay copper mine suspended operations on Friday after protesters attacked the premises – one of the largest in the country – for the third time this month.
With Reuters and Associated Press
Prosecutor: Proud Boys attacked ‘heart’ of democracy on 1/6
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants led a coordinated attack on “the heart of our democracy” in a desperate attempt to keep Donald Trump in the White House, a federal prosecutor said Thursday at the start of their seditious conspiracy trial.
Jurors heard attorneys’ opening statements for the trial more than two years after members of the far-right extremist group joined a pro-Trump mob in storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason McCullough said the Proud Boys knew that Trump’s hopes for a second term in office were quickly fading as Jan. 6 approached. So the group leaders assembled a “fighting force” to stop the transfer of presidential power to Joe Biden, McCullough said. Tarrio saw a Biden presidency as a “threat to the Proud Boys’ existence,” the prosecutor said.
McCullough showed jurors a video clip of Trump infamously telling the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during his first presidential debate with Biden in 2020, a moment that led to an explosion of interest in the group.
“These men did not stand back. They did not stand by. Instead, they mobilized,” the prosecutor said.
Defense attorneys said there is no evidence that the Proud Boys plotted to attack the Capitol and stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6.
“They’re trying to build this conspiracy that does not exist,” said one of Tarrio’s lawyers, Sabino Jauregui.
Jurors are expected to hear testimony from prosecutors’ first witness on Friday.
The trial comes on the heels of the seditious conspiracy convictions of two leaders of the Oath Keepers, another far-right extremist group.
The case against Tarrio and his four associates is one of the most consequential to emerge from the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. The trial will provide an in-depth look at a group that has become an influential force in mainstream Republican politics.
Tarrio’s lawyer said authorities have used the former Proud Boys national chairman as a scapegoat. Jauregui accused prosecutors of deceptively stitching together offensive online messages and said Tarrio actually tried to keep his Proud Boys out of fights by talking to police before rallies.
Jauregui acknowledged Tarrio and other self-described “Western chauvinists” in the Proud Boys shared “offensive” messages, but said it was Trump who unleashed the mob that attacked the Capitol.
“It’s too hard to blame Trump,” Jauregui said. “It’s easier to blame Enrique as the face of the Proud Boys.”
Nicholas Smith, attorney for Ethan Nordean, a Proud Boys chapter president from Auburn, Washington, said other members have repeatedly told federal authorities that the group didn’t have a plan for Jan. 6.
“Even the government’s own cooperating witnesses have said that,” Smith added.
The other co-defendants are Joseph Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida, a self-described Proud Boys organizer; Zachary Rehl, who was president of the Proud Boys chapter in Philadelphia; and Dominic Pezzola, a Proud Boys member from Rochester, New York.
McCullough, the prosecutor, said Proud Boys leaders recruited new members “to help them achieve their goals.” On Jan. 6, they gathered at a pre-arranged spot and began to advance on the Capitol before Trump finished his speech.
“The time for action had arrived,” the prosecutor said.
Rehl’s lawyer said he came to Washington with other Proud Boys members to exercise his First Amendment free speech rights, not to riot.
The trial will lay out private communications between the defendants, their public statements, their coordinated actions at the Capitol and their celebrations of the riot before they tried to cover their tracks.
A message that Tarrio posted on social media before Jan. 6 said, “Lords of War” with the hashtag “#J6” and a photo of Pezzola.
“These lords of war joined together to stop the transfer of presidential power,” McCullough said.
Tarrio’s lieutenants were part of the first wave of rioters to push onto Capitol grounds and charge past police barricades toward the building, according to prosecutors.
Jurors saw a video of Pezzola using a stolen riot shield to smash in a window, allowing rioters to pour into the Capitol. His lawyer argued that a different rioter broke the window first.
Tarrio, who’s from Miami, wasn’t in Washington on Jan. 6 because he was arrested two days before the riot and charged with vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic Black church during a protest in December 2020. He was ordered to leave the capital, but prosecutors say he remained engaged in the extremist group’s planning for Jan. 6.
Monitoring the riot from afar, Tarrio posted a message urging Proud Boys to stay at the Capitol.
“Make no mistake,” he wrote. “We did this.”
A day after the attack, Tarrio wrote a message that said, “God didn’t put me there for a reason.”
“We would still be there,” he added.
The Justice Department has charged nearly 1,000 people across the United States over the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection, and its investigation continues to grow. Among those are Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and Florida chapter leader Kelly Meggs, who were convicted of conspiring to block the transfer of presidential power from Trump, a Republican, to Biden, a Democrat. Three other Oath Keepers were acquitted of the charge. They were, however, convicted of other serious charges.
The Proud Boys’ trial is the first major trial to begin since the House committee investigating the insurrection urged the department to bring criminal charges against Trump and associates who were behind his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
While the criminal referral has no real legal standing, it adds to political pressure already on Attorney General Merrick Garland and the special counsel he appointed, Jack Smith, who’s conducting an investigation into Jan. 6 and Trump’s actions.
Jury selection in the case took two weeks as a slew of potential jurors said they associated the Proud Boys with hate groups or white nationalism. The Capitol can be seen in the distance from parts of the courthouse, where a second group of Oath Keepers is also currently on trial for seditious conspiracy, which carries up to 20 years behind bars upon conviction.
Tensions bubbled over at times as jury selection slowed to a crawl and defense lawyers complained that too many potential jurors were biased against the Proud Boys. Defense attorneys challenged jurors who expressed support for causes such as Black Lives Matter, saying that could indicate prejudice against the Proud Boys.
Lawyers and the judge clashed during sometimes chaotic pretrial legal wrangling to the point where two defense attorneys threatened to withdraw from the case. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, lashed out after defense lawyers repeatedly interrupted and talked over him on Wednesday, warning that he would find them in contempt if it continued.
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Richer reported from Boston.
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For full AP coverage of the Capitol riot, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege.