'Whip/Nae Nae' Rapper Silento Charged With Assault With Deadly Weapon
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Rapper Silento, whose real name is Richard Lamar Hawk, is scheduled to be arraigned Friday on two felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly wielding a hatchet against two strangers in a Valley Village home.
Hawk is behind the hit 2015 song, "Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)."
The 22-year-old entertainer is accused of walking into a stranger's unlocked home last Saturday and trying to strike two people inside with the hatchet before one of them managed to disarm him, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.
He was arrested about 1:50 p.m. on Saturday in the 12700 block of Albers Street, near Bellaire Avenue, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The day prior, Santa Ana officers responded to a call of a domestic disturbance. Hawk was arrested and booked on suspicion of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant. He was later released.
The charges — which carry a potential maximum six-year state prison sentence — include allegations that he used the hatchet as a deadly and dangerous weapon and that he committed the crime while out on bail or his own recognizance after being arrested in Santa Ana.
Sheriff's department records show that Hawk is being held on $105,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court on Friday morning at the Van Nuys Courthouse.
He had been arrested the previous day earlier in the 100 block of Macarthur Avenue, where Santa Ana officers responded to a call of a domestic disturbance. He was booked on suspicion of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant and later released.
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