Paul Pelosi tricked intruder, alerted cops before being beaten with hammer, police say
Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was punched and battered by an intruder before being beaten with a hammer, police said Wednesday.
Pelosi, D-Calif., was entering the home of her daughter who lives off the Capitol Hill when the man shouted as he pounded on the door, “Don’t kill her” in what she thought was a joke, San Francisco police said.
The attack ended when he started walking around inside the house, apparently looking for Pelosi.
A male suspect jumped into the hallway and tried to run her down with a car, but she pushed him away as she attempted to escape, police said.
“She’s heard a loud noise” and thought the commotion was coming from inside her house, the police chief, Greg Suhr, said. “She went to check it out and it turned out to be much worse,” he said.
The suspect’s car was stolen and he may have been driving it to a nearby apartment complex, police said.
Pelosi tried to walk to her daughter’s house two blocks away, but she was stopped at a red light and had to wait for another vehicle to pass before she could move on, according to police.
“She did not attempt to flee the home,” Suhr said. “She had to wait for the light to change because the suspect was in the driveway.”
Pelosi’s daughter, Alexandra Bozich, said in a statement that she was worried when she came home at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday to find her mother struggling to get the front door open.
“I was in a panic,” she said. “I had just called my husband at work to let him know I was safe.”
Pelosi was able to return home without further incident after being transferred to hospital, where she was treated for her injuries.
At about 6 a.m., a black man in a black shirt carrying a hammer yelled as he pushed his way into her home near the intersection of K Street and Gough Street.