U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott and Wayne County Sheriff Travis Hutchinson announce the arrest of wanted fugitive Benjamin Dagley, 54, the man who disrupted NBC News correspondent Shaquille Brewster’s live report on Hurricane Ida in.
Dagley was wanted by the Gulfport Police Department for assault and the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department for a probation violation.
It is alleged that on August 30, Dagley confronted MSNBC News Reporter Shaquille Brewster while he was doing live coverage of Hurricane Ida in Gulfport, Mississippi. The Gulfport Police Department charged Dagley with two counts of assault, one count of disturbance of the peace and one count of violation of emergency curfew.
This afternoon, members of the US Marshals violent fugitive task force arrested Dagley in a shopping plaza on Greene Boulevard in Dayton, Ohio.
Task force members received information that Dagley was still driving in the white truck bearing an Ohio license plate that was seen by millions of viewers when he excitedly pulled up and accosted Brewster, who was broadcasting live on MSNBC at the time.
Task force members located the truck in the parking lot and subsequently arrested him after watching him exit a store in the shopping plaza.
U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott stated, “Due to assistance provided by the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office, our task force members were able to track this fugitive from Mississippi to his arrest location in Dayton. This violent fugitive was attempting to flee from his charges in Gulfport but the swift work of our task force members resulted in a timely arrest.”
Anyone with information concerning any wanted fugitive can contact the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force at 1-866-4WANTED (1-866-492-6833), or you can send a web tip at the following webpage http://www.usmarshals.gov/district/oh-n/index.html. Reward money is available and tipsters may remain anonymous.
This is not the first rush with the law for Dagley, who was previously charged with breaking and entering at Cleveland Plating, where Cleveland police investigators said he drilled holes in tanks of dangerous chemicals.
That incident sent an employee to the hospital for exposure to toxic chemicals, and risked a potential environmental disaster, according to Cleveland police.