Dalton Eatherly, a 28-year-old streamer known as Chud the Builder, was given a $1.25 million preliminary bond on Friday after being charged with attempted murder and other offenses in a shooting outside the Montgomery County Courthouse in Clarksville, Tennessee.
Authorities say the shooting happened in the middle of the day on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, after Eatherly and another man engaged in a verbal altercation at about 1:19 p.m. An affidavit filed with the arrest warrant says the confrontation escalated quickly. It says Eatherly turned his body in a bladed stance and reached for his firearm in his right jacket pocket before a physical altercation broke out. Eatherly then fired and struck the other man multiple times.
The wounded man was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Nashville and underwent emergency surgery. Police said he was in stable condition after the operation. The affidavit says several innocent bystanders were outside the courthouse when Eatherly fired his gun, a detail that widened the danger well beyond the two men at the center of the fight.
Eatherly is also known for posting racist videos to social media, a background that now hangs over the case as he faces serious charges tied to a public shooting. The bond gives him a path to stay out of jail while the case moves forward, but the allegations already place the encounter among the most troubling courthouse incidents in the area this year.
What happens next is the legal fight over whether Eatherly should remain free before trial, and whether prosecutors can turn the eyewitness account, the affidavit and the medical evidence into a case strong enough to hold. For now, the man shot outside the courthouse is alive, Eatherly is on bond, and the confrontation that began in a verbal exchange has become a felony case with public safety at its center.
