Comedian Dave Chappelle was attacked onstage by an armed man Tuesday night as he performed at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl arena, with videos from audience members’ cellphones quickly flooding social media and showing a man appear to run onto the stage and tackle the comic.
The Los Angeles Police Department said the 23-year-old man pointed a weapon, later determined to be a replica handgun that contained a knife blade, at Chappelle.
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The suspect, identified as Isaiah Lee of Los Angeles, was arrested and accused of assault with a deadly weapon.
Following the incident, Lee was transported to the hospital “for medical treatment for injuries” before being taken to the police station and arrested. Lee is being held on a $30,000 bail.
Chappelle’s representative, Carla Sims, said in a statement that “Chappelle is fully cooperating with the active police investigation into this incident.”
“The performances by Chappelle at the Hollywood Bowl were epic and record-breaking and he refuses to allow last night’s incident to overshadow the magic of this historic moment,” Sims said.
Chappelle, whose unapologetic humor has made him a lightning rod for criticism, appeared unscathed by the sudden interruption and later joked (Note: Linked video contains harsh language including profanity) with fellow comedian and actor Jamie Foxx onstage that he’d taken revenge on his attacker.
#davechappelle attacked at #hollywoodbowl #netflixisajoke pic.twitter.com/oP04S0de90
— abazar 🦇🔊 (@abazar) May 4, 2022
Videos posted to Twitter appeared to show the person who charged Chappelle being detained outside the venue by police and then loaded into an ambulance with visible injuries. Witnesses said — and videos appeared to show — that the man was set upon by multiple people onstage immediately after he attacked Chappelle.
The idiot getting beaten down after attacking Dave Chappelle at Hollywood Bowl pic.twitter.com/Ft0FIUyjWv
— Jed Simon (@JEDSIMON) May 4, 2022
While the entire debacle was captured in multiple videos shot by members of the audience, cellphone use was officially banned during the performance.
The motivation for the initial attack remained unclear.
Chappelle was onstage performing as part of the “Netflix Is a Joke” comedy festival, sponsored by the streaming giant.
Just came out of the Hollywood Bowl where a man charged and tackled Dave Chapelle on stage and got his ass kicked by at least 10 people.
LAPD and LAFD are now loading him into an ambulance pic.twitter.com/7SXPe9e8az
— Brianna Sacks (@bri_sacks) May 4, 2022
Comedian Chris Rock was at the show, and jokingly asked if the attacker was Will Smith — who made headlines by bounding up onstage and slapping Rock at the Academy Awards in March.
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