Watch: Fan 'Thought It Would be Funny' to Clobber Bebe Rexha with Cellphone

Fans sometimes toss cellphones onto a concert stage in hopes that the singer will pick it up and take a selfie. But the fan facing charges for striking Bebe Rexha just above the eye with a phone and sending her to the hospital for stitches reportedly told security at Pier 17, the Manhattan venue where Rexha had been performing, that he had a different motive.

"I was trying to see if I could hit her with the phone at the end of the show because it would be funny," the suspect, 27-year-old Nicolas Malvagna, said, according to the HuffPost.

Malvagna's alleged comment was documented in the complaint against him, Huffpost reported.

Attorney Todd Spodek offered the court a different reason at Malvagna's court appearance on June 19, the article said – namely, that he, like others have done, tossed his phone on stage in the hopes that Rexha would use it to take a selfie and then toss it back to him.

Spodek told the court that Malvagna's "sole intention was to have Ms. Rexha take photos with his phone and return it as a keepsake. It was never his intention to injure Ms. Rexha."

As previously reported, the thrown cellphone did injure Rexha in the midst of her performance. Video footage taken by someone else in the crowd showed the moment when the phone flew through the air and struck the singer, after which she fell to her knees.

In an Instagram post, Rexha later assured fans that she was okay – though the photo she included showed that she suffered a black eye.

Rexha is slated to take to the stage again in Philadelphia this evening (June 20).

Huffpost quoted Ross Bernaud, who was in the audience when the incident took place, as saying, "It was a huge bang, and we were like, wait, that was something heavy."

According to Bernaud, the moment happened as the pop star was addressing the crowd and thanking them.

"We did feel like it was very intentional," Bernaud told the media.

CBS New York detailed that according to another person on the scene, "security asked who threw the phone and Malvagna said 'I did,' and added, 'I was trying to see if I could hit her with the phone at the end of the show because it would be funny.'"

Malvagna faces "charges of assault and harassment," the article noted. The judge in the case has also issued an order of protection against him.

To watch the CBS New York news report, follow this link.