Connect with us

Published

on

Police bodycam video has been released showing the moment a man attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer in his San Francisco home.

Officers knock repeatedly on the front door – when it opens Mr Pelosi is holding the head of the hammer while the intruder is gripping the handle and trying to prise the 82-year-old’s hand away.

Mr Pelosi refuses to let go, before the suspect suddenly seizes control and lunges at him with the weapon.

It’s at this point Sky News has decided to stop the footage.

Police rush in, jump on the attacker and push him face down on the ground as Mr Pelosi lies motionless next to him.

The 28 October attack knocked Mr Pelosi unconscious and he had surgery to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his arm and hands.

Former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi, one of the most senior politicians in the US, was David DePape’s intended target but was in Washington at the time.

More on Nancy Pelosi

Investigators work outside the home of Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in San Francisco, Friday, Oct. 28, 2022. Paul Pelosi, was attacked and severely beaten by an assailant with a hammer who broke into their San Francisco home early Friday, according to people familiar with the investigation. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
Image:
The attack happened at the couple’s San Francisco home in October

She said on Friday that she wasn’t going to watch the video.

“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,” she said.

Mrs Pelosi said her husband was “making progress” but it will “take more time”.

The video is part of evidence newly released after journalists challenged a decision to keep it out of public view.

CCTV also showed DePape as he prepared to break into the house. Pic: AP
Image:
CCTV also shows DePape as he prepared to break into the house. Pic: AP

It also includes some of Mr Pelosi’s 911 call, images from police surveillance cameras and video from DePape’s police interview.

The surveillance video shows the suspect using a hammer to smash the glass of a door to get into the house.

DePape, 42, denies all the charges against him. They include attempted kidnapping, attempted murder, elder abuse and burglary.

Mr Pelosi had surgery on his head and has worn a hat in recent public appearances. Pic: AP
Image:
Mr Pelosi had surgery on his head and has worn a hat for recent appearances. Pic: AP

Police said he told them there was “evil in Washington” and that he planned to hold Mrs Pelosi hostage for allegedly lying to the public.

He also believed the discredited theory that the US election was stolen from Donald Trump.

Court documents also reveal he told officers he was on a “suicide mission” while in interviews DePape named Tom Hanks as among other targets.

Immigration officials identified him as a Canadian citizen who was in the US illegally after entering as a visitor.

Continue Reading

US

Donald Trump says Vladimir Putin wants to meet – and that he and Barack Obama ‘probably’ like each other

Published

on

By

Donald Trump says Vladimir Putin wants to meet - and that he and Barack Obama 'probably' like each other

Donald Trump says a meeting is being set up between himself and Vladimir Putin – and that he and Barack Obama “probably” like each other.

Republican US president-elect Mr Trump spoke to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Thursday, saying Russian president Mr Putin “wants to meet, and we are setting it up”.

“He has said that even publicly and we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess,” Mr Trump said.

Ukraine war latest updates

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday there was a “mutual desire” to set up a meeting – but added no details had been confirmed yet and that there may be progress once Mr Trump is inaugurated on 20 January.

“Moscow has repeatedly declared its openness to contacts with international leaders, including the US president, including Donald Trump,” Mr Peskov added.

“What is required is a mutual desire and political will to conduct dialogue and resolve existing problems through dialogue. We see that Mr Trump also declares his readiness to resolve problems through dialogue. We welcome this. There are still no specifics, we proceed from the mutual readiness for the meeting.”

More on Barack Obama

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in July 2017. Pic: AP
Image:
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in July 2017. Pic: AP

Trump on Obama: ‘We just got along’

Mr Trump also made some lighter remarks regarding a viral exchange between himself and former Democrat President Barack Obama at Jimmy Carter’s funeral on Thursday.

The pair sat together for the late president’s service in Washington DC on Thursday, and could be seen speaking for several minutes as the remaining mourners filed in before it began.

Mr Obama was seen nodding as his successor spoke before breaking into a grin.

Asked about the exchange, Mr Trump said: “I didn’t realise how friendly it looked.

“I said, ‘boy, they look like two people that like each other’. And we probably do.

“We have a little different philosophies, right? But we probably do. I don’t know. We just got along. But I got along with just about everybody.”

The amicable exchange comes after years of criticising each other in the public eye; it was Mr Trump who spread the so-called “birther” conspiracy theory about Mr Obama in 2011, falsely asserting that he was not born in the United States.

Read more:
Trump to be sentenced today over porn star hush money
The Hollywood celebrities who have lost homes to wildfires

Insults continued for years, with Mr Obama famously dedicating much of his final White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech in 2016 to jokes at his political rival’s expense.

Mr Trump has repeatedly attacked the Obamas, saying the former president was “ineffective” and “terrible” and calling former first lady Michelle Obama “nasty” as recently as October last year.

On Kamala Harris’s campaign trail last year, Mr Obama said Mr Trump was a “78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago”, while the former first lady said that “the consequences of him ever being president again are brutally serious.”

Continue Reading

US

LA wildfires: One daughter’s haunting account of her father’s fatal decision to stay in his home

Published

on

By

LA wildfires: One daughter's haunting account of her father's fatal decision to stay in his home

“He was asleep in his bed, where he still is right now, as I wait on the coroner.”

The haunting words of Kimiko Nickerson stopped us in our tracks.

Her father Rodney, 82, was sure the fire wouldn’t reach his home in Altadena. He was wrong.

The inferno cut through this quiet suburb north of Los Angeles at an alarming rate, its path unpredictable.

California wildfires latest – new evacuation order issued

She said: “He just didn’t want to evacuate. He’s been living here since 1968, and he’s been in Altadena my whole life.

“Like all of us on this block, in four blocks, he didn’t think it was going to be this devastating.

“It jumped whole streets, and it hit this community, but it didn’t touch the mountainside at all.”

They’re still trying to process the apocalyptic scenes here and grieving for those who did not get out.

Kimiko said: “I have no words to explain my feelings at this point in time.

“I’m just silent and numb and just mentally trying to go through the process.”

Rodney Nickerson decided not to leave his Altadena home.
Pic: Kimiko Nickerson
Image:
Rodney Nickerson decided not to leave his Altadena home.
Pic: Kimiko Nickerson

‘Truly apocalyptic scenes’ as flames swallow homes in LA wildfires evacuation zone

It would be impossible to exaggerate the scale of the destruction, cars burnt to a cinder, palm trees still alight, powerlines strewn across roads.

So many people have lost the roof over their head but there’s one thing Kimiko says she’ll never lose – her memories.

“Every laugh, every joke he told.

“He was a smart man. He read the LA Times from cover to cover and walked around the Rose Bowl every day.

“He was healthy, he was ambitious… but he went to sleep and died in his bed back there.”

Continue Reading

US

Donald Trump to be sentenced today over porn star hush money after Supreme Court rejects appeal

Published

on

By

Donald Trump to be sentenced today over porn star hush money after Supreme Court rejects appeal

The US Supreme Court has rejected a last-ditch attempt by Donald Trump to delay sentencing in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.

The president-elect was convicted on 34 counts last May in New York of falsifying business records relating to payments made to Ms Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.

Prosecutors claimed he had paid her $130,000 (£105,300) in hush money to not reveal details of what Ms Daniels said was a sexual relationship in 2006.

Mr Trump has denied any liaison with Ms Daniels or any wrongdoing.

By a majority, the Supreme Court found his sentencing would not be an insurmountable burden during the presidential transition since the presiding judge, Juan M Merchan, has indicated he will not give Mr Trump jail time, fines or probation.

Mr Trump’s attorneys argued that evidence used in the Manhattan trial violated last summer’s Supreme Court ruling giving Mr Trump broad immunity from prosecution over acts he took as president.

At the least, they said, the sentencing should be delayed while their appeals play out to avoid distracting Mr Trump during the presidential transition.

More on Donald Trump

A guide to everything that will happen on 20 January

Stormy Daniels. Pic: AP
Image:
Stormy Daniels. Pic: AP

Mr Trump’s attorneys went to the justices after New York courts refused to postpone sentencing.

Judges in New York found that the convictions related to personal matters rather than Mr Trump’s official acts as president.

Mr Trump’s attorneys called the case politically motivated, and they said sentencing him now would be a “grave injustice” that threatens to disrupt the presidential transition as the Republican prepares to return to the White House.

Mr Trump has said he will appeal again: “I respect the court’s opinion – I think it was actually a very good opinion for us because you saw what they said, but they invited the appeal and the appeal is on the bigger issue. So, we’ll see how it works out,” he said at a dinner with Republican governors at his private club in Florida.

Because the New York case was a state, rather than federal crime, Mr Trump will not be able to pardon himself when he takes office on 20 January.

Continue Reading

Trending