Dalton Eatherly, the Kick IRL streamer who built a 229K-follower X account by yelling slurs at Black strangers on camera, is being held on a $1.25M bond after allegedly shooting a disabled Army veteran outside a Tennessee courthouse on May 13. He faces four felonies, including attempted criminal homicide. The pipeline from "profitable rage-bait IRL category" to "attempted murder charge" took six weeks.
⚡ Key Takeaways
- Kick IRL streamer Dalton Eatherly is being held on a $1.25M bond after allegedly shooting disabled Army veteran Joshua Fox outside a Tennessee courthouse on May 13, 2026.
- He faces four felonies: attempted criminal homicide, employing a firearm during a dangerous felony, aggravated assault, and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon.
- Eatherly built his ~229K X following on Kick's IRL category by approaching Black strangers with a camera and deploying racial slurs to harvest engagement.
- Kick banned him indefinitely in April 2026; he migrated to Pump (a livestreaming platform that issues a personal memecoin per creator) within weeks.
- Bond was reduced to roughly $1M as the case was bound over to a Tennessee grand jury on May 20.
- The IRL rage-bait pipeline went from 'most-clipped category' to 'courthouse shooting' in six weeks, and the audience that demanded it is not going anywhere.
What actually happened?
On the afternoon of May 13, 2026, Eatherly (the 28-year-old who streams as "Chud the Builder") showed up to the Montgomery County Courts Center in Clarksville, Tennessee for a civil hearing over a $3,000 credit-company debt, per Wikipedia. According to the arrest report, he argued with 31-year-old Joshua Fox in the courtyard, "turned his body in a bladed stance," and pulled a handgun from his jacket pocket. He fired multiple rounds, striking Fox in the stomach and shoulder, ClarksvilleNow reported.
Fox, a disabled Army veteran and father of three, was LifeFlighted to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for emergency surgery, Primetimer reported. Eatherly was shot in the arm during the struggle, treated, then booked. The courthouse complex went into temporary lockdown. He was charged with attempted criminal homicide, employing a firearm during a dangerous felony, aggravated assault, and reckless endangerment, per WSMV News 4 Nashville.
Why does this matter for creators?
Because this is not a true-crime story dressed up in livestreamer cosplay. It is what happens when a platform pays you, for years, to escalate. Eatherly's entire content loop was the same five-step move: walk up to a Black stranger with a camera, deploy a racial slur, film the reaction, clip it to X for his 229K followers under @ChudTheBuilder, monetize the next stream.
Kick tolerated this long enough for him to become a brand. The platform finally suspended him in April 2026 for public harassment, then made it indefinite after a failed appeal, per Sportskeeda. He migrated to Pump, a newer livestreaming platform that issues a personal memecoin per creator. Six weeks later a veteran was bleeding in a courthouse courtyard.
"Based upon the fact of how many people were in the courtyard over the courthouse and the seriousness of all these felonies."
Judge Reid Poland III, Montgomery County General Sessions Judge, ruling on the $1.25M bond, via CNN
Where does this go from here?
The case was bound over to a Tennessee grand jury on May 20, with bond slightly reduced to about $1M, per FOX 17 News Nashville. CNN, ABC, Rolling Stone, Vice, and Complex are now using the word "notorious" to describe Eatherly, which is the post-arrest infamy halo that has historically been good for a creator's reach even when their bank account loses platform monetization. A GoFundMe for Eatherly has already started drawing supporters online. A separate GoFundMe for Fox's medical bills has cleared $7,000.
The deeper signal: when Kick bans you, the next platform is already waiting. Pump exists, the memecoin-per-creator model exists, and the audience trained to want confrontation does not unlearn that appetite when the streamer changes URLs.
Every IRL streamer running the rage-bait playbook just got the same notification at once. Some will read it as a warning. Most will read it as a marketing case study.
What does Fanvault think?
Fanvault is the opposite-pole bet in this market, and the Chud the Builder arc is exactly why the bet exists. Every Fanvault creator is invite-gated, manually verified at onboarding, and age-gated at 18+, with brand-safe content standards and a two-strike policy baked into the platform. The economics work without rage: an 8% platform fee (creators keep 92%) versus Fanvue's 15%, Passes' 10% plus $0.30, and Fanfix's ~20%, paired with a storefront layer (auctions, authenticated memorabilia, wishlists, paid DMs, paywalled posts) that converts real fans into recurring income.
The Chud model maxes out impulse engagement until the camera meets a courthouse. A verified Fanvault creator turns the same audience into long-term, repeatable revenue with none of the rage-tax, and none of the felony charges.
The IRL rage economy was always going to end in a courthouse. The only open question was whose.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Chud the Builder?
Chud the Builder is the online handle of Dalton Levi Eatherly, a 28-year-old Tennessee-based contractor and IRL livestreamer who built a following on Kick by walking up to Black strangers with a camera, deploying racial slurs (the N-word and a slur he favored, "chimps"), and clipping the reactions for his
What is he charged with?
Per WSMV News 4 Nashville, Eatherly faces four felonies: attempted criminal homicide, employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, aggravated assault, and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon. Judge Reid Poland III set bond at
Why was he at the courthouse in the first place?
A routine civil hearing over an alleged $3,000 debt to a credit company, per Wikipedia's timeline. Outside the courthouse he allegedly argued with 31-year-old Joshua Fox, a disabled Army veteran and father of three, drew a handgun, and fired multiple rounds. Fox was struck in the stomach and shoulder, LifeFlighted to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and underwent emergency surgery, Primetimer reported.
What does this mean for IRL streaming as a category?
It means the IRL category's incentive curve, especially on Kick where it has been aggressively marketed as a "freedom from cancel culture" alternative to Twitch, has produced its inevitable terminal output. Audiences trained on confrontation demand more confrontation, and the algorithm rewards the creators who escalate fastest. Every IRL creator running a rage-bait playbook in 2026 now has a courthouse-shaped case study to weigh against their next clip. Some will pull back, but the platform incentives will pull most of them forward.