Ohio man accused of assaulting reporter during live coverage of Ida in Mississippi

GULFPORT, Miss. — Police on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant for an Ohio man seen in Mississippi confronting a reporter on live television one day earlier in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida.

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Benjamin Eugene Dagley, of Wooster, Ohio, is wanted on two counts of simple assault, one count of disturbance of the peace and one count of violation of an emergency curfew, according to police. He was identified by members of the public who came forward after the incident.

Around 12:40 p.m. Monday, officers responded to a report that an NBC News reporter had been assaulted by a man traveling in a white Ford F-150 truck as the city was under a curfew due to Hurricane Ida.

Video of the incident shows Shaquille Brewster reporting live for MSNBC as a white truck pulls into the sand behind him. A man, identified as Dagley, gets out of the truck and jogs toward Brewster before beginning to yell about reporting the storm accurately.

Brewster shifts positions and continues his live report before the man’s shouts get louder, prompting him to toss it back to the studio. Before Brewster’s live shot ended, Dagley could be seen physically confronting him.

Afterward, Brewster took to social media to thank people for their concern.

“The team and I are all good!” he wrote in a Twitter post.

Police said Tuesday that they did not believe Dagley was on the Mississippi Gulf Coast anymore. He was traveling in a 2016 Ford F-150 bearing an Ohio license plate with the No. PJR1745.

Officials said Dagley was also on probation out of Ohio. Police said they contacted officials with the Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Adult Probation Department after identifying him, as a condition of his probation “included restrictions on travel.”

Police ask that anyone with knowledge of Dagley’s whereabouts contact their local law enforcement agencies.

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