A 23-year-old man carrying a replica handgun with a knife blade ran onstage and tackled Dave Chappelle during the comedian’s performance at the Hollywood Bowl late Tuesday, stunning fans and raising new questions about venue safety.

Isaiah Lee was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and is being held on $30,000 bail, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Authorities are investigating how Lee entered the venue and was able to evade security checks to get near the stage, according to law enforcement sources.

A video of the incident shows the man rushing from the left side of the stage as Chappelle is about to finish his performance. He appears to put his head down as he charges at the comedian, knocking him backward. The attacker retreats across the stage as security swarms him.

The video showed paramedics putting the restrained man, who appeared to have an arm injury, onto a stretcher behind the stage. Fans booed as paramedics wheeled him into an ambulance.

Chappelle, who was performing his standup routine at the amphitheater as part of Netflix Is a Joke: The Festival, was uninjured and continued the show. But the incident shocked fans and prompted a huge police response.

It also heightened existing worries about the safety of comedians in the wake of Will Smith’s infamous slap of Chris Rock during the Oscars after Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Chappelle had addressed the situation earlier in his performance.

Chappelle could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.

The motive for the attack was unknown. Officials are not sure how the weapon got through Hollywood Bowl security. The venue, which is is owned and operated jointly by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Assn., uses metal detectors to screen visitors.

Representatives for the Hollywood Bowl could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.

After the man rushed the stage, several people came to Chappelle’s aid, including actor Jamie Foxx, who was also at the performance.

Rock, who had performed earlier that night, joined Chappelle onstage and joked: “Was that Will Smith?”

When the attack happened, Chappelle had just wrapped up a routine in which he talked about how comics have to worry more about their personal security.

“The comedian had literally just said he now has more security because of all the uproar from his jokes about the Trans community,” tweeted BuzzFeed News reporter Brianna Sacks, who attended the show. She tweeted that “while the attacker was getting beat up,” Chappelle “made a joke about him probably being a Trans man.”

Before the incident — about halfway through his set — Chappelle called for his security guard, whom he introduced as Travis, to come onstage to bring the comedian a drink in a red Solo cup.

“This is my new security,” Chappelle told the crowd, adding that he’d had to beef up his security detail now that people had it “out for him.”

He then launched into a story about a man covered in racist tattoos who kept coming to his Ohio home and shouting the N-word at him. He had to get a protection order against the man, which he said the court explained was the only way police officers would be able to arrest the man.

“Or you could just shoot him,” Chappelle recalled the court administrator saying to him through a ventriloquist smile.

“I didn’t like that,” he said. Instead, he offered to facilitate a more rehabilitative approach toward his trespasser with the stipulation that it never be revealed he was the one footing the bill.

The comedian’s set was bookended by two standing ovations, and the crowd seemed receptive to him all night, which made the unprecedented attack all the more shocking, according to attendees.

Several of the opening acts alluded to their comfort expressing controversial jokes in the presence of a “Dave Chappelle audience,” and each time the crowd cheered appreciatively in response.

Since October, the Emmy-winning comic has been at the center of a public relations firestorm over jokes deemed transphobic. The controversy culminated in several Netflix employees walking out on the job and Chappelle’s fans also showing up at the protest to defend him.

The fallout has forced Netflix into a corner, divided the comedy community and led many to reassess Chappelle’s brand, “cancel culture” and freedom of speech. Netflix has refused to pull his hit special or label his jokes as hate speech, which were among the demands made by some of the streaming giant’s employees.

Times staff writer Nathan Solis contributed to this report

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