Police say they figured out who rushed an NBC News reporter during a segment on Hurricane Ida. He is Benjamin Eugene Dagley, of Wooster, Ohio, officers said in a statement. Officers are after him on two counts of simple assault, one count of disturbing the peace, and one count of violating an emergency curfew.
As seen in the video above, a man rushed reporter Shaquille Brewster during a beachside segment in Gulfport, Mississippi on MSNBC.
He parked a white truck, stepped out, and jogged right to Brewster. The man, wearing a white shirt, said something to the effect of “You’re reporting this accurately, right?”
Brewster tried to diffuse the situation by directing the camera away and continuing his segment.
“We deal with some people every once in a while,” he said, before attempting to continue the segment. The man in the white shirt, however, began to screaming, apparently telling them to report “ACCURATELY.” He got right in Brewster’s face as reporter blocked him with an arm and the feed cut back to the studio.
“Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!” said anchor Craig Melvin while promising to check back in on the reporter. “There’s a lot of crazy out there. A lot of crazy.”
Melvin later called the assailant a “wacky guy.”
Brewster says he and everyone else are fine.
“Appreciate the concern guys,” he tweeted on Monday. “The team and I are all good!”
We would like to thank the public for coming forward and helping identify Dagley. pic.twitter.com/SFPJAekshn
— Gulfport Police Dept (@GulfportPolice) August 31, 2021
Officers were still looking for Dagley. They say he fled the scene in a white 2016 Ford F150 with the Ohio license plate PJR1745. Officers ask that anyone who knows his whereabouts to call local law enforcement.
They say he possibly violated probation back in Cuyahoga County, Ohio because one of the conditions thereof was a restriction on travel. Cuyahoga County online records show that a man named Benjamin Eugene Dagley, age 54, pleaded guilty to attempted felonious assault, inducing panic, and vandalism; prosecutors dropped other counts of inducing panic and vandalism as well as breaking and entering, extortion, felonious assault, and for the alleged criminal use of a chemical weapon, biological weapon, radiological or nuclear weapon, or explosive device with the intent to cause physical harm to or killing anyone who is not a participant in the offense.
[Screenshot via MSNBC]
