Comedian Donnell Rawlings says he was shot in the thumb after getting caught in the crossfire of rival street gangs.
Rawlings was a guest on Joe Rogan’s podcast yesterday, and those who watched the video of the interview instantly noticed that the comedian’s left thumb was heavily bandaged. It was massive, couldn’t be missed.
Rogan calmly asked after a couple of minutes, “what happened to your thumb?” to which the 51-year-old funnyman responded by dramatically stating: “I got SHOT!”
Rogan skipped the part about asking how he was (although, to be fair, he seems ok) and said, “who shot you?” Rawlings then said he didn’t know as it all happened so fast, and he wasn’t able to get a good look at the perpetrator.
Donnell Rawlings: ‘I was protecting my dog Maggie’
A clearly emotional Rawlings appeared cagey and defensive about the incident, but he eventually told Rogan that he had been protecting his new dog, Maggie, from a “hail of bullets.” He claims he was “in the streets” when he got caught in a crossfire between two rival street gangs.
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He said that approximately 45 shots rang out; luckily, the only injury he sustained was that his thumb “was shot off.” He refused to go into any further specifics about the incident and wouldn’t say where it occurred, other than “in the streets.”
Rawlings also said his thumb was probably going to be ok; the doctors managed to retrieve all the bullet fragments, and surgery was considered unnecessary at this time. He said he just needs to get the range of motion back. “I was lucky,” he added.
Rawlings complained that simple tasks, such as buttoning up his pants, had become difficult for him. He then stressed that folks need to appreciate having all their limbs intact. The comedian also revealed he’s on antibiotics but that he expects to make a full recovery.
He didn’t say exactly when the shooting occurred, but three days ago, he posted a pic of his wounded thumb and of himself on a hospital ward. In the caption, he wrote: “I’m recovering from this gunshot wound.”
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Rawlings joked online that Charlamagne Tha God shot him
Rawlings has also been joking on Instagram how Charlamagne Tha God was suspected of carrying out the shooting. The pair have had beef for some time now, which seems to stem from an interview that the radio presenter did with Rawlings when he mocked him for not being funny.
Since then, they’ve been back and forth feuding. “It’s serious, but it’s funny,” said Rawlings when he told Rogan about the feud back in April.
Rawlings wasted no time in jokingly accusing Charlamagne of shooting him this week. He initially posted a mockup of a TMZ story, where Charlemagne is supposedly the main suspect.
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Rawlings also remade a meme that’s been doing the rounds for a few years now, superimposing Charlemagne’s image on to now-famous news footage of Texas woman Donna Renee Goudeau being arrested in 2011 where she claimed she was “legally blind”.
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Some fans expressed doubt about Donnell Rawlings’s story
Some folks on Twitter wondered why the comedian seemed so defensive and evasive when talking about the incident, and others asked if he was embellishing the truth.
One fan wrote: “Rawlings is SO defensive about people not believing that he’s been shot, that I’m actually starting to think he’s lying… what’s this millionaire doing hanging out on a street where FORTY FIVE gun shots can go off & it’s not on the news??”
Another fan joked that if Donnell Rawlings was gonna get shot, then the thumb was a very Donnell Rawlings place to get shot: “That’s the most Donnell Rawlings place someone could get shot.”
It seems Rawlings is going to be ok, but we wish him a speedy recovery.
Joe Rogan is no stranger to controversy, and he’s had some real characters on his show. Three weeks ago, conspiracist Alex Jones was chatting to Joe about the shady Bohemian Grove club.
And in other Joe Rogan news, it was recently revealed that he might be upping stakes and moving from Los Angeles to Texas, with California’s tax laws cited as a reason for leaving the Golden State.