Dave Chappelle was tackled onstage while performing at the Hollywood Bowl last night (May 3). The attacker was supposedly carrying a replica gun that can eject a blade, according to a Los Angeles Police Department statement to NBC Los Angeles. This morning, the LAPD identified the attacker as Isaiah Lee, 23, and charged him with assault with a deadly weapon, The New York Times reports.
It is unclear whether Lee tried to use the weapon. Chappelle appeared to recover quickly, joking about joining in with the security guards who had proceeded to beat the attacker, according to BuzzFeed News reporter Brianna Sacks, who was at the show.
Shortly before being attacked, Chappelle had said he needed more security due to controversy over his repeated use of transphobic material. After the attack, Chris Rock, who had performed earlier in the evening, ran on stage and joked, “Was that Will Smith?” Chappelle said, “It was a trans man!” Yasiin Bey and Talib Kweli performed immediately after the incident. At the end of the show, which was part of the Netflix Is a Joke comedy festival, attendees caught footage of the assailant, visibly injured, being loaded into an ambulance.
A spokesperson for Chappelle’s production company said in a statement to Variety that the comedian “refuses to allow last night’s incident to overshadow the magic of” his Hollywood Bowl performance.
A Netflix spokesperson stated: “We care deeply about the safety of creators and we strongly defend the right of stand-up comedians to perform on stage without fear of violence.”
This article was originally published on Wednesday, May 4 at 9:35 a.m. Eastern. It was last updated on May 4 at 3:59 p.m. Eastern.
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