Criminal charges weighed against a man after a country music star stops show over an alleged assault

PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) — Criminal charges were being considered for a man suspected of hitting a woman during a concert at the Colorado State Fair, authorities said Thursday, in an incident that prompted country music star Scotty McCreery to abruptly stop his show and call out the alleged assailant from the stage.

“Right here, right here,” McCreery says in video from the event, as he points into the crowd and the band stops playing. “That’s a lady you just hit sir. Absolutely not. Who just hit the lady?”

The singer from North Carolina — who gained fame as a teenager appearing on the television show “American Idol” — called for police and security and asked if the woman was OK.

People could be heard booing and chanting as officials responded during the Saturday concert in Pueblo, Colorado.

McCreery, 30, urged the crowd to let authorities know who was responsible. He said that hitting a woman was the “definition of a coward” and told the alleged assailant to “get the heck out of here” before the show resumed.

The woman was evaluated on-site by paramedics and declined to be taken by ambulance to a hospital, said Olga Robak with the Colorado Agriculture Department.

The man was temporarily detained but not arrested, and potential criminal charges were being referred to prosecutors, Robak said.