When Frank Ciccarelli hired David DePape, he was homeless and living under a tree in Berkeley’s Aquatic Park.
But he was quiet, likeable and a steady worker building decks with Ciccarelli for six years, he recalled Monday. And politically liberal.
Three years ago, Ciccarelli worked out a way for DePape to move into a converted garage in Richmond. It was that single car structure with a plywood floor that the FBI searched over the weekend.
Ciccarelli says over the years, he watched DePape’s steady descent into extremism. It started when DePape would turn off NPR news in the morning on the way to jobsites.
“It was a gradual process – it was over six years,” he said, “day by day.”
While normally quiet, DePape eventually began to repeat talking points that Ciccarelli recognized as being espoused in right wing circles.
“It was the whole thing – Hillary Clinton, Pizzagate, MAGA, the election was stolen – all of it.”
Ciccarelli says he last saw Depape when he paid him three days before the attack. He says what happened at the Pelosi’s home shocked him.
But he says there were signs of mental illness. Recently, he said, DePape started talking about building a physical home for an imaginary fairy.
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Still, Ciccarelli says he never thought Depape would resort to violence.
Ciccarelli says his heart goes out to the Pelosi family. “It was a terrible thing that happened,” he says.
Neighbor Jin Molnar says he knew DePape from working with him working on decks and other jobs. “He was quiet, he’s not offensive,” Molnar says, but added he began to wonder because DePape was known to rant about topics such as the COVID-19 virus, suggesting it was a hoax. “I got the suspicion at some point he was going to do something odd.”
Partly, he says, that was because of all the time DePape spent in that garage, when he was not working.
Ciccarelli says DePape would isolate himself playing violent videogames and watching right-wing media.
“He spent too much time alone,” Molnar says.
It is not clear what the FBI removed when they searched the garage on Saturday, but on Monday Ciccarelli hauled away furniture and other items left inside for donation. Although videotaping was not allowed, a quick visual survey showed items left behind included tool belts, a weight vest and a well-worn gaming chair.
