Dave Chappelle‘s Hollywood Bowl performance Tuesday night came to a temporary screeching halt when someone rushed the stage and attacked the comedian, and it was especially scary because we’ve learned the guy pulled out a gun.
It went down toward the end of Dave’s show — part of the “Netflix Is a Joke” festival — when a man in the audience somehow got on stage and manhandled Dave, tackling him violently and slamming him on the hard stage.
Law enforcement tells TMZ, the attacker actually pointed the gun at Chapelle as he rushed him. We’re told the gun was not real, it was a replica of a semi-automatic. It also weirdly had a knife attached to the gun.
An eyewitness tells TMZ … the attacker got up and started running as a swarm of people went after him. He was running around the screen on the stage when, as the eyewitness put it, “the mob caught up with him and beat the crap out of him, stomping on him.” The eyewitness says Jamie Foxx and Busta Rhymes got a few licks in.
We’re told Dave was ok but the attacker was injured and taken by stretcher to an ambulance. We’re told he’s currently in the hospital. LAPD sources tell us, the man was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon.
Just came out of the Hollywood Bowl where a man charged and tackled Dave Chapelle on stage and got his ass kicked by at least 10 people.
LAPD and LAFD are now loading him into an ambulance pic.twitter.com/7SXPe9e8az
— Brianna Sacks (@bri_sacks) May 4, 2022 @bri_sacks
Dave continued with his act, telling the audience, “I don’t know if that was part of the show. I grabbed the back of that n***** head, his hair was spongy, absorbent.”
Now get this … after the attack, guess who was there? Chris Rock! He was one of Dave’s special guests. As Chris walked on stage, he hugged his pal and said, “Was that Will Smith?”
It’s unclear who the attacker is or why he did it, but the show went on as planned.