Chicago, IL — Dev Hynes, who performs as Blood Orange, claimed on Friday that he was assaulted by security guards following his afternoon set at Lollapalooza.
Hynes (full name Devonté Hynes), alleged that both he and girlfriend Samantha Urbani, who performed with him, were grabbed and thrown to the ground following his set. He did not say where they were or when the alleged assault happened.
A few hours before the alleged assault, Hynes posted a picture of the t-shirt he wore during his set, which featured the names of three black men who were the victims of violence. Among the names on the shirt were Trayvon Martin and Eric Gardner, the latter a man who died on July 17 after a New York police officer put him in a chokehold; the city medical examiner ruled Gardner’s death a homicide on Friday.
A spokesperson for the festival’s promoter, C3 Presents, could not be reached for comment at press time. Hynes said he was very upset by the incident and claimed that comments posted by supporters on the official Lollapalooza social media sites were being scrubbed.
Several fans posted comments in which they said that they had tried writing about the incident on Lolla’s Facebook pages only to have the posts removed. (MTV News could not independently confirm that any posts related to the alleged assault had been taken down.)
Urbani, who wore a shirt decrying police brutality during the set, said that the couple had spoken to organizers afterwards and were told that the people allegedly involved were not Lollapalooza staff, but private security.
Hynes continued tweeting about the incident for several hours, with Urbani lamenting that the alleged incident caused the couple to miss Eminem‘s anticipated headlining set later that night. In addition, Hynes said that one of the guards was, in turn, claiming that the singer assaulted him.
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