Marc Lamont Hill recently explained the details behind a 2024 incident in which an alleged stalker attacked him on stage.
The activist and author recalled the moment in the Thursday (June 12) episode of The Joe Budden podcast, confirming he was “pepper sprayed” during the Q&A segment of a speaking event.
The attack went down on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Philadelphia, across the street from Hill’s bookstore, Uncle Bobbie’s.
“I was mad as shit,” Hill told his co-hosts, who were clearly amused.
Hill was asked if he had sued or pressed charges against the alleged perpetrator, moves that may have conflicted with his public stances on the criminal justice system.
“Sued? N***a, please. You can hear me on the tape say, ‘Do not call the police,’” he said. “I walk it like I talk it. She was mentally ill. She had been stalking me for a couple of weeks, and I didn’t know … I never met her before.”
Hill’s co-hosts continued to poke fun at the situation, joking it was an extramarital affair that went bad.
“None of this is true. She was crazy as f*ck,” he said. “I was standing there, giving a speech… She stands up for a Q&A. She had written a letter to me, saying that she was trying to talk to me about how the CIA and Joe Biden were trying to frame her for murder.”
Hill said the woman had previously vandalized his bookstore with red spray paint and intended to throw a brick through the shop’s window before police intervened. He claimed authorities simply wrote the woman a ticket and let her go.
“Did you hit it?” Joe Budden jokingly asked.
“I never met this woman before,” Hill insisted. “No, to be clear: Not only did I not hit, I never met her before. It was clear she was a crazy person, right?”
Hill then recalled the moments leading up to the attack, saying he didn’t think much of the woman until she got to the mic and said her name.
“It started clicking who she was,” he said. “I’m looking at security … She was like, ‘I just want to talk about what happened to me.’ And I was like, ‘I just want to be clear that I’ve never met you before.’ [She said], ‘You don’t know me, Marc? You don’t know me, Marc?’ She starts coming toward me. I said, ‘I need you to stop walking’ … I’m sitting in the chair … I’m thinking she’s reaching for a gun. I’m thinking, ‘If she’s about to shoot me, this is a really terrible way to die.’”
Budden refused to let the cheating storyline go and continued to make light of Hill’s attack.
“This is when you had to make the lie so elaborate, like, ‘She had a gun, baby. She was about to kill me,’” the host said.
“Anyway… before I could do anything, she pulled out the spray,” Hill recalled. “She got me in the eye.”
Video of the 2024 attack has since resurfaced online. The woman was seen approaching Hill as she reached into her pocket, pulled out a can of pepper spray, and used it on Hill. The 46-year-old activist immediately jumped out of his chair and behind the stage curtains. Another man then ran into the frame and restrained the woman.
Hill returned to the stage seconds later, telling the audience that the woman had broken into his bookstore and vandalized it.
“I never met this woman before,” he said in the video. “We’re not gonna call the cops.”
Hill shed more light on the situation via X on Thursday, reassuring his fans that he was “fine.” He said he has since worked with the woman and her family to get her help.
“The video of me being pepper sprayed was from January 2024,” he wrote. “At the time, the attacker believed that I was part of a conspiracy (along with the CIA, Mumia Abu Jamal, and the president) to cover-up traumatic events from her childhood. Since then, after refusing to press charges, I have worked with her family and community members to enable a restorative process.”
He continued: “Through the process, I have learned that she did indeed suffer significant childhood abuse, as well as serious mental health challenges that continue to this day. Instead of criminal prosecution, I have done my best to make sure that she receives social and mental health support to help her heal as best as possible.”
The post garnered skepticism among some X users, who questioned if anyone truly reached out to Hill to see if he was OK. Hill didn’t hesitate to provide screenshots of messages he received regarding the 2024 attack.
“Rather than respond to every person, I made a post,” he wrote in a subsequent post. “I never claimed that the Internet wasn’t in uproar. I just responded to the people who had reached out to me asking if I was OK. What’s the issue?”
