When Dave Chappelle was tackled by an armed man during a performance at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles Tuesday night, audience members were shocked and confused.
Some, like Angel, even thought it might have been part of the show.
"You have to remember, Chris Rock came out and made a joke about Will Smith," Angel told KSON, referencing the incident at the Oscars where Smith walked on stage and slapped Rock across the face for making a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. "Chappelle made jokes about Will Smith. So part of us, I assume maybe half the crowd, kind of thought, 'Oh, ok. So this is a callback joke."
The incident happened as Chappelle was wrapping up his set. A man ran on stage and tackled the comedian to the ground.
"I was in a box of four and two of the four people, they thought he was just a guy who was trying to give Dave Chappelle a hug because it was the end of the show... and he tripped and fell," said Angel.
But then things quickly got serious. Several people who appeared to be part of Chappelle's security detail and entourage rushed the stage and detained the attacker.
"When [Chappelle] hit the ground, everyone went quiet," said Angel. "He all of a sudden jumped up and ran, and then everybody knew."
While the audience realized the incident wasn't planned, they had no idea that the suspect, 23-year-old Isaiah Lee, was armed with a replica gun that had a knife blade at the time of the attack.
"The feeling was absolute shock because we didn't realize what was happening," said Angel. "A lot of us had mentioned this must have felt like what it would have been like at the Oscars."
Angel said she was surprised Chappelle continued with the show after the incident.
"You could tell he was definitely shaken because his tone and his cadence on the microphone was completely different," she said.
Lee was arrested at the scene and initially held on a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon. However, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón declined to pursue felony charges against Lee, saying there wasn't enough evidence.
The case has been referred to the city attorney's office for possible misdemeanor charges.
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