The US Marshals Service announced on Thursday the arrest of Benjamin Dagley, a 54-year-old Ohio man who was identified as the individual filmed harassing an MSNBC reporter in Gulfport, Mississippi, during national coverage of Hurricane Ida.
According to the US Marshals Service's statement, members of the dangerous fugitive task team captured the suspect at a Dayton, Ohio, shopping mall after receiving information that Dagley was still reportedly driving his white Ford F-150 with an Ohio license plate.
After witnessing Dagley exit a store in the plaza, task force members found his pickup in the parking lot and detained him.
Earlier, the Gulfport Police Department issued a warrant for Dagley after he angrily interrupted MSNBC News reporter Shaquille Brewster while covering Hurricane Ida off of US Highway 90 in Gulfport on August 30. Dagley was charged with two charges of assault, one offense of disruption of the peace, and one count of violation of an emergency curfew by the Gulfport Police Department.
As Brewster was detailing the consequences of Hurricane Ida, which hit the area just a day prior, Dagley, as seen on the live coverage video, whipped his white pickup vehicle off the road and onto the backdrop of the reporter's shot. Brewster then pauses the reportage by saying, "I think we even have a random person going around," as Dagley steps out of his truck and runs toward him to ask in person: "You’re reporting this accurately, right?"
Brewster tweeted shortly after the event that he and his crew were "all good."
"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," US Marshal Pete Elliott is quoted in the statement regarding the arrest as saying.
According to media reports, Dagley was arrested in 2017 on suspicion of breaking into an electroplating shop he used to own and putting holes in tanks containing toxic chemicals. According to a report citing court documents from Cuyahoga County, Ohio, he pleaded guilty to vandalism, causing panic, and attempted assault. In 2018, he was sentenced to five years of probation.