In this week’s installment of heinous concert behavior, a man has been charged with assault after allegedly throwing a cell phone at Bebe Rexha during a New York show last weekend. The singer was performing at Pier 17 in lower Manhattan as part of her Best F’n Night of My Life tour when she was struck in the head with a phone and rushed offstage. On Monday, Rexha posted images of her injuries to Instagram, captioning the carousel — which includes close-ups of her bruised left eye — “Im good.”
Video footage of the incident shows Rexha collapsing to her knees after the attack, and she was taken to a nearby hospital where she received stitches, according to Rolling Stone. She also suffered “redness, swelling, bruising, and a laceration to her eye and substantial pain,” per the criminal complaint. According to NBC News, the criminal complaint states that a witness at the concert heard 27-year-old New Jersey resident Nicolas Malvagna say, “I was trying to see if I could hit her with the phone at the end of the show because it would be funny.”
Malvagna was arrested and charged with two counts of assault in the third degree, one count of harassment in the second degree, one count of aggravated harassment in the second degree, and one count of attempted assault in the third degree. He pleaded not guilty to the charges. “As a fan, Mr. Malvagna’s sole intention was to have Ms. Rexha take photos with his phone, and return it as a keepsake,” his lawyer, Todd Spodek, told NBC News in a statement. “It was never his intention to injure Ms. Rexha.”
