Donations Surge to $90K for Streamer Facing Attempted Murder Charges

In a twist that feels almost too absurd to be real, Dalton Eatherly—known to his streaming audience as Chud the Builder—saw his GiveSendGo fundraiser explode with donations in the hours after he was charged with attempted murder. Less than 24 hours after a shooting incident outside a courthouse in Tennessee, the fund had already crossed $90,000, with over $18,000 pouring in Thursday morning alone.

This wasn’t a spontaneous response to a new crisis, though. Eatherly had already set up the fundraiser well before Wednesday’s altercation, asking supporters to help his family after he was fired from his job for what he described as“edgy, harmless humor”—language that included racial slurs. He’d framed it as a matter of free speech and painted himself as under siege from people spreading“lies”and making threats over his past behavior.

Then came the shooting. During a heated scuffle outside the courthouse, shots were fired. Both Eatherly and an unidentified man sustained non-life-threatening injuries. Eatherly claimed he fired in self-defense. Police disagreed. He was charged with attempted murder, employing a firearm during a dangerous felony, aggravated assault, and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon.

And yet the donations kept coming—anywhere from five bucks to two grand per contribution—with supporters wishing him well. Donations ranged widely, but the message from his backers was clear: they saw him as a victim, not a defendant. What’s striking here isn’t just the speed or the amount. It’s how seamlessly the narrative shifted. An existing fundraiser built on claims of persecution suddenly had real legal jeopardy to point to, and for his supporters, that only seemed to confirm their worldview.

Whether you see this as grassroots support for someone wrongly accused or as a troubling sign of how quickly online communities can rally around controversial figures regardless of the charges they face, one thing’s certain: the money keeps flowing, and the legal process continues. The fundraiser is nearing its $100,000 goal, and the courtroom will determine what actually happened that day in Tennessee.