The attack on Dave Chappelle looks like it isn’t going to be over anything time soon.
We recently reported that the comedian was attacked by an angry fan during his stand-up performance at the Hollywood Bowl as part of the Netflix Is A Joke Festival.
The attacker has since been identified as 23-year-old, Isaiah Lee, an aspiring rapper who goes by the name NoName__Trapper. Lee was reportedly armed with a knife and a gun and arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. He is currently being held on a $30,000 bail.
A rep from Chapelle’s team released a statement about the attack:
“Dave Chappelle celebrated four nights of comedy and music, setting record-breaking sales for a comedian at the Hollywood Bowl. This run ties Chappelle with Monty Python for the most headlined shows by any comedian at the Hollywood Bowl, reaching 70k fans of diverse backgrounds during the first Netflix Is A Joke: The Festival and he refuses to allow last night’s incident to overshadow the magic of this historic moment. As unfortunate and unsettling as the incident was, Chappelle went on with the show. Jamie Foxx and Chris Rock helped calm the crowd with humor before Chappelle introduced the last and featured musical guests for the evening, hip-hop artists yasiin bey and Talib Kweli, a.k.a. Black Star, who performed music from their new album – the first in nearly 24 years – which was released on Luminary. Other special comedic guests last night included Earthquake, Leslie Jones, Jeff Ross, Sebastian, Jon Stewart, and Michelle Wolf.
Netflix would also release a statement of its own pertaining to the heinous attack. “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.”
It has been reported that Dave Chappelle is being fully cooperative with the police as they conduct their investigation.