A 28-year-old streamer who built a following by hurling racist slurs and harassing people in public has been arrested on attempted murder charges. According to Rolling Stone, Dalton Eatherly—who streams under the name Chud the Builder—allegedly shot a man multiple times outside a Tennessee courthouse last week. The victim was airlifted to hospital for emergency surgery.
Eatherly faces attempted murder charges and other felonies. He hasn't yet entered a plea. The arrest appears to have boosted his brand among his online supporters.
How did we get here? Before the shooting, Eatherly was a "nuisance streamer"—a content creator who built an audience through offensive material. His rise began in early 2025 after he allegedly called a Black woman the N-word during a road-rage incident. Her daughter posted his photo online, and the backlash cost him his contractor job.
Rather than disappear, Eatherly doubled down. He started a GiveSendGo fundraiser, claiming he was being "slandered" by his community. He then turned to live-streaming, regularly antagonizing Black people in public while flashing his gun and claiming it was his "First Amendment right" to use racial slurs.
Joshua Fisher-Birch, a researcher at the Counterextremism Project, tells Rolling Stone that Eatherly is a textbook "ragebaiting streamer." "He's yelling racist statements, being a racist public nuisance in the hopes that this will lead to positive financial contributions," Fisher-Birch says.
Before his arrest, Eatherly had amassed roughly 229,000 followers on X and recently launched a Discord channel—before being removed for violating hate speech policies. From custody, his notoriety continues to grow. For outrage merchants, even a mugshot becomes content.
