The confrontation that brought police to the Montgomery County Courthouse on Wednesday afternoon followed weeks of racially charged behavior by Dalton Eatherly, 26, who posts videos under the name “Chud the Builder” that capture him shouting racial slurs at Black people while openly carrying a firearm. At about 1:20 p.m., deputies responded to reports of gunfire and found two people involved in a “physical altercation that escalated to gunfire,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. Both were taken to separate hospitals with gunshot wounds and were listed as stable.
District Attorney Robert Nash identified one of the people as Eatherly, who was later booked into the Montgomery County jail on charges of attempted murder, employing a firearm during a dangerous felony, aggravated assault, and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon. Authorities declined to answer questions about the other man; a witness who saw him loaded into an ambulance described him as Black.
Eatherly posted an audio stream to social media shortly after the shooting in which he told paramedics he shot the man in self-defense after the person started hitting him. A paramedic noted an entry and exit wound in Eatherly’s arm, and at one point Eatherly can be heard asking, “Did I shoot myself or did it graze it?”
David Raybin, a Nashville criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor who is an expert in Tennessee criminal law, said any claim of self-defense would face a high bar given Eatherly’s documented conduct. “I think a prosecutor would give very little weight to claims of self-defense,” Raybin said. He noted that under Tennessee law, a person only has the right to use deadly force if threatened with death or great bodily harm.
Eatherly’s recent history suggests a pattern of public provocation. On the previous Saturday, he was kicked out of a Nashville steakhouse after he refused to stop livestreaming and began yelling, screaming and “making racial statements,” according to an affidavit. He left without paying a nearly $400 bill and was arrested the next day on charges of theft of services, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest, authorities said. He was released on $5,000 bond.
The morning of the shooting, Eatherly had been scheduled for a status hearing in a civil case over a $3,300 debt allegedly owed to a credit company, according to Montgomery County court records. The case remains open, and online records did not indicate whether he appeared.
Claire Martin, who works in a law office across the street from the courthouse, said Eatherly is well known in Clarksville for yelling racial slurs at Black people while filming them. She described seeing the aftermath of the shooting. Eatherly also regularly confronts people in downtown Nashville.
At some point before the shooting, Eatherly posted an online fundraiser in which he complained that his videos prevent him from getting contracting work and claimed his use of racial slurs constitutes “harmless humor.” He appealed to “champions of free speech.” Raybin said such behavior may itself be criminal, because Eatherly was known to carry a pistol while berating people, which can create fear of imminent harm and constitute assault even without physical contact. “You don’t have to touch someone,” Raybin said. “Assault can be charged if you ‘create fear of imminent harm.’”
Eatherly was not listed in online court records as of Thursday afternoon, but if the case follows normal procedure in Montgomery County, he will be arraigned Friday, when a judge will decide on bond.