The man who attacked Dave Chappelle on stage during a stand-up show has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon, police have confirmed.
Chappelle was performing at the Hollywood Bowl in LA on Tuesday (3 May) as a part of Netflix Is A Joke: The Festival, and as the show was ending, he was attacked by a 23-year-old man.
This man has since been named as Isaiah Lee by the Los Angeles Police Department.
Clips of the incident, along with the aftermath, have been circling around social media and shows the attacker, with a badly injured arm, being put in an ambulance.
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Despite the disruption, Chappelle remained on stage and finished off his performance - even appeared to joke: "It was a trans man." The comment comes in reference to ongoing controversy about some of the comedian's jokes which have led to him being accused of transphobia.
Los Angeles-based journalist Sharon Carpenter, who was in the audience, told the PA news agency: “It looked like someone dashed from the side of the stage, lunged at Dave, and all I saw was Dave basically flying in the air.
“He fell backwards onto his back, with his arms and legs up in the air. He was obviously in shock. We were all in shock.
"And I thought for a moment ‘OK, is this a prank?’ because they had made some Will Smith jokes.
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“Even though Chris Rock was there, Dave was making some jokes, it was fair game, right?
"He was making some jokes about the situation.”
Carpenter said security officers and members of Chappelle’s entourage had then rushed on to the stage, adding: “He just tried to keep the show going and was making jokes about the situation, but he was also p****d off about it as well.
“What was crazy too is that earlier in the night he made a joke about ‘Oh, I heard people are getting slapped around here’.”
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Despite the shocking attack, the night continued with a performance by rappers Mos Def and Talib Kweli.
A spokeswoman for the Hollywood Bowl said an investigation had been launched into the incident.
“The incident that occurred at the Hollywood Bowl on May 3 2022 is an active investigation and we are unable to comment further at this time,” she said in a statement.
British comedian Jimmy Carr was among those at the show and expressed his relief that nobody was seriously injured.
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Sharing a selfie taken with Chappelle, he tweeted: “The Hollywood Bowl show with the legendary Dave Chappelle was crazy. Just happy everyone’s ok.”
Featured Image Credit: @Hoodville_/Twitter/AlamyTopics: World News
