Man accused of assaulting news reporter
Shaquille Brewster stood near an empty Mississippi beach on Monday reporting on the recent hurricane that slammed into the Gulf Coast states when a white 2016 Ford F150 pickup parked behind him.
Brewster, a broadcast news reporter for MSNBC, saw a man run toward him yelling about “accuracy,” so he quickly moved to clear the man from view.
But a few seconds later, the man forced the reporter to sign off.
“Craig, I’m going to toss it back to you because we have a man who is upset right now,” Brewster said as the man approached him yelling.
When the camera broke away to another news anchor, the man assaulted Brewster, according to the Gulfport Police Department.
The video quickly went viral, and the man suspected in the bizarre incident is from Wooster, according to police.
He is identified as Benjamin Eugene Dagley.
A warrant was issued for his arrest on Tuesday. He faces two counts of simple assault, one count of disturbing the peace and one count of violating an emergency curfew, according to a Gulfport
Police Department news release.
With help from the Cuyahoga County Adult Probation Department, Gulfport police say they’ve determined Dagley is on probation for a prior charge.
One condition of his probation, according to Gulfport Police, included travel restrictions.
Police say Dagley was no longer along the coast of Mississippi and is traveling in his truck.
Dagley was charged several years ago with breaking and entering into his former business, Cleveland Plating in Cuyahoga County, according to a Cleveland.com report. Surveillance showed that he drilled into tanks containing sodium cyanide, hydrochloric acid, yellow chromate, ferrous chloride and sulfuric acid, the news site reported.
At the time of the incident, he was also in the midst of an ongoing dispute with the company regarding the property, its lease, mortgage and other issues.
Cleveland Plating’s owners asked a judge for a temporary restraining order and Dagley was charged with misdemeanor assault, accused of breaking into the building and punching and slamming a door into a security guard, according to the Cleveland.com report.
Reach Bryce by email at bbuyakie@gannett.com