An Ohio man angrily confronted a reporter in Mississippi during a live broadcast on Hurricane Ida – and is now being sought on criminal charges.
NBC News correspondent Shaquille Brewster was doing a liveshot in Gulfport Monday when a man in a white pickup truck drove up behind him, hopped out and ran toward the camera, the bizarre clip shows.
“Y’all are reporting this accurately, right?” the man later identified by cops as Benjamin Eugene Dagley demands, the clip shows.
“I think we even have a random person going around,” Brewster says. “You know, I’m going to turn this way because, you know, we deal with some people every once in a while.”
Moments later, Dagley yells at Brewster again to “report it accurately!” while getting up in the correspondent’s face, prompting him to cut the segment short.
“Craig, I’m going to toss it back to you because we have, uh, a person who needs a little help right now,” Brewster told anchor Craig Melvin.
“Hey, hey, hey, hey,” Melvin said. “We’re going to check in with Shaq Brewster just to make sure all is well. There’s a lot of crazy out there, a lot of crazy.”
Gulfport police asked the public Monday to help identify the man seen disturbing Brewster during his live report. Arrest warrants were issued Tuesday for Dagley, 54, of Wooster, on two counts of simple assault, disturbance of the peace and violating an emergency curfew in Mississippi, police said in a statement.
Dagley is no longer on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and is believed to be traveling in a white 2016 Ford F-150 truck with an Ohio license plate.
“If you know of Dagley’s whereabouts, please contact your local law enforcement agency,” Gulfport police said Tuesday. “The Gulfport Police Department would like to thank the public for coming forward and helping identify Dagley.”
Dagley is also wanted for violating his probation by leaving the state of Ohio, Gulfport police said.
He pleaded guilty in 2018 to attempted felonious assault for breaking into an electroplating company and drilling holes into tanks of chemicals, sending one worker to the hospital, Cleveland.com reported.
Dagley was sentenced to five years of probation and 30 days in jail. He was also ordered to take anger management courses. A hearing on the probation violation has been set for Sept. 15 and he faces up to three years in prison if found guilty, court records cited by the outlet show.
Brewster, meanwhile, said he was OK after the unexpected confrontation.
“Appreciate the concern guys,” he tweeted afterward. “The team and I are all good!”