Blues musician Lester Chambers, 73, was attacked last month while performing at the Hayward Russell City Blues Festival in Hayward, Calif. Chambers was performing Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready” as a tribute to 17-year old Trayvon Martin who was shot dead by George Zimmerman.
A woman, Dinalyn Andrews-Potter, launched onstage and shoved the musician down yelling, “It’s all your fault.” Chambers’ wife recalled at the time, “She must have been an acrobat. She did it in one leap. He didn’t see her coming.”
Reports released on Wednesday revealed that Alameda County prosecutors charged Andrews-Potter with felony counts of assault and elder abuse
According to HuffPost:
“Chambers said in an interview this week with the TV station that Andrews-Potter shouted slurs and obscenities at him and screamed ‘You started this!’ before the attack. He said the incident still has him in pain and struggling to perform.
“‘My nerves are shot. I shake. I can’t sleep,’ said Chambers, who has hired his own attorney. ‘I have a great big lump over here on my left rib cage.”’
Chambers and his family are also want to add a hate crime charge but authorities have not made a decision on that request.
“It is a hate crime. There’s no other reason for it,” Chambers said. “She had hate in her face like a demon. Oh, God, it was ugly.”
