The gunman who attacked Dave Chappelle onstage in Los Angeles was an “aspiring rapper” with a temper known to wreak havoc in his apartment complex, former neighbors have said.
Isaiah Lee, 23, was arrested after shoving Chappelle while carrying a strange knife that looks like a handgun during a filmed attack at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday night.
Former neighbor Russell Taylor remembered Lee as someone who could be “triggered by a word”.
“Whatever Chappelle says and he doesn’t feel anything, it wouldn’t be a surprise to me if he said, ‘Hey, I’m going to run and fix this!’ said Taylor, who lived in a condo in Redondo Beach, Calif., next door to a condo where Lee resided.
“You know the slap heard around the world? He’s the kind of guy who would act out if you did something he doesn’t like.
Lee had lived with his brother and his brother’s girlfriend in the condo for about two years, but the landlord said only the brother’s girlfriend had been on the lease and Lee was not paying rent.
Taylor remembered the brothers for explosive arguments between them and with neighbors that rocked the normally quiet street. Police have visited the compound multiple times on calls related to the group, Taylor said, and he said he personally saw police handcuff Lee on more than one occasion.
“They were screaming and screaming in front of the street almost every weekend,” Taylor said.
“They always came back to the police station after an hour or the next day. It’s gone wrong here – threatening each other with knives.
The brothers often talked about being from New York, with Taylor saying Lee meant that, to brag, “New Yorkers don’t take shit from nobody.”
The owner of the building where Lee had stayed described him as a “very troubled person” from a very difficult upbringing.
“One minute he would be happy, then the next his mood would change drastically,” said the owner, who asked to be referred to by his nickname ‘Bobby’.
Lee was never seen working, and Bobby said Lee’s older brother Aaron was kicked out about eight months ago for kicking in an apartment door.
“I’m just glad they didn’t burn my house down,” Bobby said of the brothers. Isiah Lee raps as NoName_Trapper and has a verified Spotify account and a song called ‘Dave Chappell’ but Bobby called the two brothers budding rappers whose music was ‘just awful’.
“They are criminals,” Bobby said. “It’s emblematic of how bad things got in this state.”