Suspect in Dave Chapelle attack is taken into custody by LAPD
Isaiah Lee attacked comedian Dave Chapelle with a replica gun and a knife hidden inside while he was onstage at the Hollywood Bowl. (Courtesy: @xanejardineiro7/Pop Nation /TMX)
The Los Angeles Police Department arrested a suspect and charged him with assault with a deadly weapon after Dave Chappelle was attacked onstage Tuesday night.
The alleged suspect, identified by LAPD as Isaiah Lee, was carrying a replica gun with a knife blade inside when he attacked Chappelle during the Hollywood Bowl, police say. The comedian was in the middle of his standup routine for "Netflix Is a Joke."
So, who is the 23-year-old suspect?
The LAPD declined to comment to Fox News Digital when asked about Lee's criminal history. A California court record search did not yield any results for someone with Lee's name and month and year of birth.
The Los Angeles Police Department arrested a suspect and charged him with assault with a deadly weapon after Dave Chappelle was attacked onstage Tuesday night. ( Pierre Suu/Getty Images)
Jail records describe Lee as being a Black male with black hair and brown eyes, who stands 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighs about 140 pounds. He has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon, a felony, and is being held on $30,000 bail, authorities said. No court date has been set, records show.
A man with a swollen bruised face is cuffed to a stretcher as he is taken to a hospital. This happened during Chappelle's "Netflix Is a Joke" festival. (Roger / BACKGRID)
Meanwhile, according to the New York Post, Lee is a rapper. An Instagram search shows someone with the name Isaiah Lee, who appears to go by the username, "noname_trapper," and matches the physical description of the suspect.
The user posted an Instagram story earlier Tuesday wearing the same sweatshirt that the suspect was seen donning in later photos following his arrest. The Instagram Story showed him with his hair up, his hood over his head and a filter of a bloody nose and horns.
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Chappelle was attacked onstage during a performance of his standup routine amid the "Netflix Is a Joke" festival. (Photo by Shannon Finney)
A YouTube search for someone with the name "Noname_trapper" produced dozens of rap videos, including one that shows a man standing on what appears to be a police vehicle, flashing the middle finger.
One song, posted on June 2020, is titled "Dave Chappell" and contains a phrase that sounds like: "Walkin' straight into the bowl" with a laugh.
The attack on Chappelle, allegedly done by Lee, took place toward the end of Chappelle's standup routine. The comedian thanked both Busta Rhymes and Jamie Foxx for helping out following the attack.
"Whenever you're in trouble, Jamie Foxx will show up in a sheriff's hat," he told the audience.
Security guards chased and overpowered the attacker, and Chappelle was able to continue his performance. Chris Rock was there as well, and jokingly asked if the attacker was Will Smith. In March, Smith slapped Rock over a joke he made about Jada Pinkett Smith's bald head. The actress has publicly shared her struggle with alopecia.
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Chappelle attends the Opening Night Party presented by "Netflix Is a Joke" at W Hollywood on April 28, 2022, in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Netflix)
Meanwhile, Chappelle is refusing to let the attack Tuesday night "overshadow a magical moment," a representative for the comedian told Fox News Digital.
"Dave Chappelle celebrated four nights of comedy and music, setting record-breaking sales for a comedian at the Hollywood Bowl," his representative said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital. "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."
A spokesperson for Netflix told Fox News Digital: "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."
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