Dalton Eatherly, known online as “Chud the Builder,” had his bond revoked after prosecutors alleged he shot and nearly killed a man outside the Montgomery County Courthouse in Clarksville, Tennessee. The case adds to a trail of earlier arrests and widely share
Dalton Eatherly, known online as “Chud the Builder,” walked into a Tennessee courtroom this week after months of livestreamed provocation that prosecutors say is no longer just talk.
On Wednesday. a Davidson County judge revoked his bond after reviewing his conduct and new evidence surrounding an alleged shooting outside the Montgomery County Courthouse in Clarksville. Tennessee. Montgomery County investigators described what they saw as a plan rather than a spontaneous act. pointing to Eatherly’s videos and social media posts and telling the court. “It sounds premeditative. like he’s going to kill somebody.”.
The shooting at the courthouse came after Eatherly had already been out on bond following an earlier arrest in Nashville. He was arrested on theft, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest charges after prosecutors said he walked out of a restaurant on an almost $400 tab.
But days later, prosecutors say the same man escalated to something far more serious: allegedly shooting and nearly killing a man outside the courthouse.
Eatherly’s online presence has been central to how the case is being framed. He livestreamed what he portrayed as his racist and violent goals to thousands of supporters. and prosecutors say the record includes threats. racial attacks. and fantasies about violence being met with legal impunity. In a now-deleted X post dated May 7. he wrote. “Series finale is dead chimp on the pavement and you monkeys rioting when I walk free.”.
A week later, he was allegedly strapped to a gurney after a courthouse altercation in which prosecutors say he shot a Black man and himself. Both men survived.
The charges now facing Eatherly include attempted murder, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, and employing a firearm during a dangerous felony. Prosecutors say the exposure is severe: he faces up to 60 years in prison.
The courtroom spectacle around him has grown even as his legal options narrowed. In the weeks since the shooting, supporters descended on Tennessee courtrooms, turning routine hearings into public events. At one appearance. Jake Lang—identified in the record as a Trump-pardoned January 6 rioter and far-right activist—was removed by bailiffs after disrupting court proceedings. Lang received a 10-day jail sentence for contempt, the maximum sentence under state law.
In the Montgomery County shooting case, a judge set Eatherly’s bond at $1 million. Supporters raised more than $300,000 for his defense, but judges repeatedly rejected efforts to use that fundraising to get him released before his bail was revoked.
Eatherly’s story is also being cast as part of a broader shift in how extremist rhetoric is marketed online—less through institutions and ideology. and more through the promise of attention. The account describes a new generation of right-wing streamers who profit by coaxing donations while amplifying racist hate speech on social media. It also says Eatherly took that tactic further than many others by carrying out his antics in public while streaming himself hurling the N-word at minorities with a pistol and pepper spray.
The videos prosecutors point to also include threats to “blow” targets’ brains out. along with a recurring theme: the fantasy that escalation would lead to violence. legal immunity. and a “race war.” In livestreams described as targeting Black neighborhoods. he allegedly hurled racial epithets and labeled enemies “chimps. ” framing the stunts as “free speech.” One video described in the record shows him antagonizing a pedestrian before pepper-spraying him and a crowd of onlookers.
Even the earlier Nashville case, prosecutors say, fits that pattern of public confrontation. In that incident, Eatherly livestreamed himself hurling racist insults at a restaurant before staff kicked him out. Police later arrested him after he allegedly left without paying his sizable bill.
The case is unfolding against a backdrop federal prosecutors have been pursuing for years: moving from online postings to real-world harm. In September 2025. prosecutors charged organizers of “Terrorgram. ” a white supremacist online group. with soliciting hate crimes and soliciting the murder of public officials. Authorities have also linked recent racially motivated shooters in San Diego and Buffalo to the same online extremist ecosphere.
For Eatherly, the immediate consequence is clear. The record describes him as having been blunted before any stunt “went too far off the rails,” and says his legal “immunity” jokes have not materialized. What remains is the criminal case and a pile of evidence tied to months of public provocation.
His days of online shock content may be over for now. but the case leaves prosecutors and the public facing a familiar fear: that others are poised to step into the void. Eatherly’s supporters may have kept returning to court. but his bond status has changed—his legal freedom has been revoked as the allegations move closer to trial.
The question now is whether the fantasy he broadcast—of confrontation met by impunity—can be converted, in court, into punishment.
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