Chappelle attacked: LA County DA won’t charge as a felony, refers misdemeanor case to city attorney

LOS ANGELES — The armed man who is accused of attacking comedian Dave Chappelle on stage will not face felony charges, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said Thursday.

Isaiah Lee, 23, was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon after tackling the comedian Tuesday night at the Hollywood Bowl.

Lee is being held on $30,000 bail. It’s unclear what motivated Lee to run onto the stage.

The county district attorney’s office referred the case to the Los Angeles attorney for possible misdemeanor charges instead. County prosecutors determined that while criminal conduct occurred, “the evidence as presented did not constitute felony conduct.”

Police said Lee was armed with a replica handgun-knife when he ran onto the stage and tackled Chappelle. Witness video shows Chappelle falling back but he managed to quickly free himself as security rushed out to grab the attacker.

According to ABC News, Chappelle and the man tussled on the stage floor. Security staff surrounded and tackled the man in the rear corner of the stage.

Chappelle appeared to run toward the altercation, saying the man was being “stomped” and asked repeatedly for security to remove the man from the stage.

He was performing his stand-up routine on the last of four nights at the amphitheater as part of the “Netflix Is a Joke” festival during the attack. Jamie Foxx was in the wings of the stage and Chappelle thanked him for responding to the attack. Chris Rock was there as well. He grabbed the mic and jokingly asked, “Was that Will Smith?”

Chappelle was wrapping up a routine in which he talked about how comedians have to worry more about their personal security in the wake of this year’s Academy Awards ceremony where the Oscar-winning actor slapped Rock on live television in reaction to a joke about his wife.

A spokesperson for Chappelle issued a statement Wednesday, calling the incident “unfortunate and unsettling” but saying he refuses to let it overshadow the record-breaking performance at the Hollywood Bowl.

He is cooperating with the police investigation into the incident.

A spokesperson for Netflix also issued a brief statement: “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.”

The comedian was not injured in the attack and later joked with the audience about it.

ABC News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.