Marc Lamont Hill Breaks Silence on Viral Video of Him Getting Pepper Sprayed During a Talk
In 2024, scholar, author and activist Marc Lamont Hill was the victim of a terrifying attack during a speaking engagement that left him and those who witnessed it in complete shock. Hill, who has not previously spoken about the event, just gave us more details about the incident and the woman who instigated it.
On the June 12 episode of 'The Joe Budden Podcast,' Hill explained that an alleged stalker attacked him with pepper spray at a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day event in his native Philadelphia, which took place across the street from his bookstore, Uncle Bobbie's Coffee & Books. The woman — who apparently believed Hill was part of a government plot against her — approached the stage where he was sitting and pepper-sprayed him.
Hill shot behind the stage curtains until security could restrain the woman.
'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 explained.
A video of the incident has recently resurfaced on social media.
Although the incident was extremely serious, host Joe Budden still managed to find a way to make a joke. When teased by Budden that the alleged stalker might have been upset about a romance gone wrong, Hill quickly denied having any ties with his alleged attacker.
'Not only did I not hit, I never met her before. It was clear she was a crazy person, right?' he asked.
In case you were wondering, Hill, who has been outspoken about finding alternatives to calling the police, told Budden that he understood the woman was mentally ill and never planned to get law enforcement involved.
'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 shared more about how he's engaged with the woman's family since the incident on social media.
'I have worked with her family and community members to enable a restorative process. 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,' he wrote in part in a June 12 post on X.
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