An arrest warrant has been issued for an Ohio man who accosted an NBC/MSNBC reporter during a live on-air spot Monday morning in Gulfport, Mississippi.
According to WLBT, the man has been identified as Benjamin Eugene Dagley.
Dagley now faces charges for the following: two counts of Simple Assault, one count of Disturbance of the Peace, and one count of Violation of Emergency Curfew.
Dagley is accused of violating a city-wide curfew that was put into effect because of Hurricane Ida.
Police say that Dagley is also currently on probation for a charge he got in Ohio, and one of the conditions of his probation was restricted travel.
The incident, which you can watch above, shows the person alleged to be Dagley coming out of a white truck running towards reporter Shaquille Brewster. Though his specific words are difficult to hear due to the wind and the fact that he doesn’t have a microphone, you can listen to him yell throughout the spot until it concludes with him aggressively shouting something (a word that sounds like “accurately” can be heard a few times) and putting his face extremely close to Brewster’s face before the two appear to make contact. After that the shot cuts out.
From there in-studio host Craig Melvin says “Hey, hey, hey, hey. We’re going to check back in with Shaq Brewster just to make sure all is well. There’s a lot of crazy out there. A lot of crazy.”
Shortly after that Melvin said Brewster’s okay. Brewster also tweeted out “Appreciate the concern guys. The team and I are all good!”
