Isaiah Lee, the man who allegedly attacked Dave Chappelle during his set at the Hollywood Bowl, has pleaded not guilty and has had his bail set at $30,000.
In case you missed the insane news, Chappelle was performing his set that was a part of the Netflix Is A Joke special when a man in the audience seemed to lunge at the star, sending him to the ground.
Although attendees had their phones confiscated upon entry, social media exploded with posts about the event, including some from the actual event and many from the aftermath, with one video showing a man, believed to be Chappelle, being body-slammed by someone who appears out of nowhere. He is cut off mid-sentence with an audible grunt from the force of the attack. Following the shocking attack, videos posted by attendees after the event appeared to show the man being loaded into an ambulance with what looked to be a dislocated arm.
Following his attack on Chappelle, 23-year-old Isaiah Lee was charged with four misdemeanours: battery, possessing a deadly weapon with intent to assault, unlawfully crossing from a spectator area onto a stage, and interfering with or delaying such an event with unlawful conduct. If convicted, he’d face no more than 18 months in county jail.
Despite Lee pleading not guilty to the charges, his bail was set at $30,000.
“He charged a person on the stage … in front of hundreds if not thousands … and then tackled the victim and fled from security. When they detained him, he reached for and used the folding knife,” prosecutor Henrico Bautista told the court.
Lee’s public defender, Chelsea Padilla, denied he ever brandished a weapon during the attack.
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“The only injury was actually to Mr. Lee … facial injuries from 12 people stomping on Mr. Lee while he was on stage,” Lee’s attorney said.
Lee’s brother, Aaron Lee, revealed to Rolling Stone that the Isaiah had been living in shelters in California for much of the last decade and “does have a history of mental health issues.”
Aaron continued: “He does take medicine. Maybe he missed out on taking his prescription. But he’s not the type to just lash out. I don’t understand.”
On Thursday night, Dave Chappelle returned to the stage for the first time since being attacked, with Chris Rock joining the star to joke about the event, with Rock using the opportunity to take aim at Will Smith one month after being slapped by the King Richard star at the Oscars.
“At least you got smacked by someone of repute,” Chappelle reportedly told Rock on stage. “I got smacked by a homeless guy with leaves in his hair.”
Rock reportedly responded, “I got smacked by the softest n****a that ever rapped.”
According to TMZ, Dave convinced Bowl security to let him speak to Lee before he was taken away, saying he “needed to talk to him” to find out why he attacked. Chappelle said Lee told him this was all about getting attention for his grandmother who had been forced out of her neighbourhood because of gentrification.
Meanwhile, a former neighbour Russell Taylor has spoken out about Lee, describing him as someone who could be “set off with a word.”
“Whatever Chappelle was saying and he was not feeling, it would be no surprise to me that he would go, ‘Hey, I’m going to run up and fix it!’ ” said Taylor, who lived in a Redondo Beach, California condo next to Lee.
“You know the slap heard around the world? This is the kind of guy who would take action if you do something he did not like.”
He added that he recalls explosive arguments between Isaiah and his brother that were heard throughout there “They would be screaming and yelling in front of the street almost every weekend,” Taylor claimed.
“They would always come back after an hour at the police department or the next day. It got bad around here — threatening each other with knives.”
