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HAYWARD, Calif. » R&B singer Lester Chambers is recovering from injuries he suffered after a woman leaped onto the stage and shoved him when he dedicated a song to Trayvon Martin during a concert in the San Francisco Bay Area, a newspaper reported Monday.
Lester Chambers — a member of the Chambers Brothers, best known for their 1968 hit "Time Has Come Today" — had a bruised rib muscle and nerve damage after he was attacked Saturday at the Hayward Russell City Blues Festival, family members told The San Jose Mercury News.
Chambers dedicated the Curtis Mayfield hit "People Get Ready" to the slain Florida teen, the newspaper reported.
Witnesses said 43-year-old Dinalynn Andrews Potter of Barstow yelled "it’s all your fault" before shoving 73-year-old Chambers.
"She must have been an acrobat," Lola Chambers, Lester Chambers’ wife, told the Mercury News. "She did it in one leap. He didn’t see her coming."
Andrews Potter was arrested on suspicion of battery, cited and released.
George Zimmerman, who identifies himself as Hispanic, was found not guilty of second-degree murder in last year’s death of Martin, who was black. The jury had the option to consider manslaughter but declined to convict him of the lesser charge.
The case prompted debate nationwide over racial profiling, self-defense and equal justice. Zimmerman was acquitted Saturday.
Chambers’ family wants police to file hate crime charges. Andrews Potter is white, they said. Chambers is black.
Hayward Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
