A man who recently interrupted Dave Chappelle’s stand-up performance at a comedy festival by attacking him onstage has been charged with an unrelated count of attempted murder. Isaiah Lee is now facing the charges for an incident where he allegedly stabbed his roommate in December 2021, according to Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón.
“The publicity generated by the attack on Mr. Chappelle helped police solve this crime,” Gascón revealed in a Thursday press release. “The incident that occurred at the Hollywood Bowl was misdemeanor conduct and rightfully referred to the City Attorney’s Office. Based on the nature and severity of the December attack, Mr. Lee is now facing felony charges which my office will prosecute.
According to the release, the stabbing incident took place at a “transitional housing apartment,” and when the victim filed his assault report he didn’t have Lee’s name. After the media coverage of the attack, police say the victim was able to identify Lee as the man that stabbed him as well. Lee has reportedly pled not guilty to the charge and is due back in court on June 2nd.
When he attempted to tackle Chappelle at the Netflix Is A Joke festival, they struggled on the ground briefly before Lee was pulled away and attacked by several members of Chappelle’s entourage while the comedian returned to the center of the stage. Chappelle even joked about how he “stomped” the man a couple of times himself.
Lee was at risk of another assault charge because it was reported that he was carrying a “replica handgun-slash-knife,” but the filing was changed to a misdemeanor as stated by Gascón in his recent statement.
