Who Is ‘ChudTheBuilder,’ The Slur-Hurling Livestreamer Charged With Attempted Murder
The rise and violent downfall of livestreamer Dalton Eatherly, better known online as “ChudTheBuilder,” has become one of the internet’s most explosive cautionary tales about race-baiting content, online extremism, and the blurry line between free speech and criminal conduct.
Eatherly, 28, is now facing attempted murder and multiple felony charges after allegedly shooting a black man outside a Tennessee courthouse earlier this month in an incident that has drawn national attention and ignited fierce debate over the culture surrounding livestream “ragebait” creators.
According to authorities, Eatherly — who built a sizable online following by filming himself shouting racial slurs at strangers and provoking confrontations in public — shot Joshua Fox during one such confrontation outside the Montgomery County Courthouse in Clarksville, Tennessee, on May 13. Fox, a veteran, was struck multiple times and airlifted to a hospital for emergency surgery. Eatherly was also injured during the shooting.
Prosecutors have charged Eatherly with attempted criminal homicide, employing a firearm during a dangerous felony, aggravated assault, and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon. During a Thursday hearing, his bond was reduced to $1 million after initially being set at $1.25 million.
Authorities say the confrontation began as a verbal altercation before escalating into gunfire. According to court documents, Eatherly allegedly reached toward a firearm inside his jacket before the two men began fighting. Investigators say surveillance footage showed bullets ricocheting near bystanders outside the courthouse. In audio recorded after the shooting and later posted online, Eatherly claimed he acted in self-defense.
Before his arrest, Eatherly had carved out a growing internet following through inflammatory livestream content that frequently involved using racial slurs in public while filming reactions. He regularly defended the behavior as protected speech under the First Amendment.
His notoriety began growing in 2025 after a road-rage incident involving a black woman went viral online. Eatherly says the backlash cost him his contracting job and pushed him further into online content creation. From there, his audience expanded rapidly across livestreaming and social media platforms. He amassed more than 200,000 followers on X, launched online fundraising campaigns, and cultivated an audience who viewed him as a free-speech provocateur pushing back against political correctness.
Critics, however, describe him as part of a growing ecosystem of “ragebait” livestreamers who profit from public outrage and racial provocation.
“He’s trying to build this following by angering people,” Joshua Fisher-Birch, an extremism researcher with the Counter Extremism Project, told Rolling Stone. “They are incentivized over time to do more and more radical actions in the real world to gain followers online.”
Civil rights advocates and legal experts have argued that Eatherly’s conduct may go far beyond protected speech. Tennessee attorney David Raybin noted that repeatedly approaching strangers while armed and aggressively hurling slurs could potentially constitute assault under state law if it creates fear of imminent harm.
The case has also drawn significant support from elements of the online alt-right. Eatherly reportedly raised more than $100,000 for his legal defense within a single day after his arrest, with fundraising totals later climbing far higher.
Inside the courtroom on Thursday, tensions surrounding the case were already apparent. Judge H. Reid Poland III ordered several attendees removed for disruptions, including provocateur Jake Lang, who was escorted out in handcuffs.
Despite the mounting legal jeopardy, Eatherly’s case has become a broader flashpoint in the national debate over online radicalization, livestream culture, and whether platforms are financially incentivizing increasingly extreme behavior.
For now, prosecutors appear intent on focusing attention back on the shooting itself — and the real-world consequences of internet notoriety spiraling into violence.
