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Dave Chappelle announces he’s donating his stand-up ticket sales to victims of the mass shooting at a Buffalo grocery store
- Chappelle, 48, performed in Buffalo, New York on Saturday night
- He said he ends up donating sales to mass shooting victims
- The suspected gunman killed 10 black people on May 14 and left three injured
- He attacked a Tops grocery store in Buffalo with an AR-15 style gun
- The alleged shooter’s online writings indicate racist motives
Dave Chappelle says he wants to help victims of a deadly mass shooting in Buffalo, New York by donating his ticket sales to them.
The 48-year-old comedian announced Saturday at the end of his stand-up performance in Buffalo at Shea’s Performing Arts Center that he would give proceeds to the victims’ families, according to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
The venue shared Chappelle’s announcement, which comes after a suspected gunman killed 10 black people with an AR-15-style gun and wounded three others at a Tops grocery store.
Helping out: Dave Chappelle, 48, announced at the end of a last-minute stand-up show in Buffalo, New York that he would be donating his ticket sales to the families of victims of a racist mass shooting in the city on May 14; seen in London in October
“He said, and I paraphrase, ‘I came here to Buffalo to recognize the sacrifices and for these families,'” said Kevin Sweeney, Shea’s director of marketing and communications.
Chappelle reportedly told the audience towards the end of his show that families of the victims were in the audience after he invited them over.
Sweeney added that the venue was not involved in Chappelle’s charity plans and could not be more specific.
Chappelle’s show was announced at short notice on June 1, and tickets sold out within an hour of Thursday’s go on sale.
Doing his part: “He said, and I’ll paraphrase, ‘I came here to Buffalo to recognize the sacrifices and for these families,'” said Kevin Sweeney, Shea’s director of marketing and communications; Chappelle was seen in Hollywood on April 28th
Tragedy: The announcement comes after a gunman killed 10 black people with an AR-15 style gun and wounded three others at a Tops grocery store; pictured May 15
The accused: The suspect, Payton Gendron, 18, was charged with 25 counts, including 10 counts of first-degree murder and domestic terrorism charges. He has pleaded not guilty; seen on 28.5
His last show at the Buffalo was in 2016 and it was also sold out.
The suspect accused of last month’s Buffalo shooting, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, has been charged with 25 counts, including 10 counts of first-degree murder and domestic terrorism charges. He didn’t plead quilty.
The alleged gunman reportedly wrote about his racist motivations for the shooting, including references to a 2019 mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, when a gunman killed 51 at two mosques in the city while live-streaming the carnage.
Like the Christchurch killer, the alleged Buffalo gunman went live on social media as he attacked shoppers at the Tops grocery store, which is located in a predominantly black neighborhood.
Shocking: Earlier last month, Chappelle was attacked on stage while performing at the Hollywood Bowl
On Thursday, a 911 dispatcher was fired after a disciplinary hearing for reportedly hung up on a Tops worker who called for help while hiding from the gunman.
Chappelle recently had a scare on stage when he was attacked on stage at the Hollywood Bowl by a man with a gun-shaped knife blade in early May, although it was apparently not used in the attack.
The Half Baked star has come under fire in recent years for his stand-up specials and live shows, which sometimes included lengthy sections of jokes about transgender people, which some viewers and viewers labeled transphobic.
Immediately after the attack, Chappelle joked to the audience, “It was a trans man,” despite the attacker not being transgender.
Controversial: The comedian has been slammed by some viewers and viewers in recent years for lengthy digressions on his shows, which they consider transphobic; seen in Paris in January
