Advertisement Veteran TV reporter harassed with racial slurs; man arrested Brian Eybers faces charges after incident with Steve Crump Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Racial slurs against a veteran TV news reporter were caught on camera by the reporter’s videographer, and the man who is accused of hurling the insults was arrested.Longtime reporter and documentarian Steve Crump, 59, of WBTV in Charlotte was in downtown Charleston on Oct. 8 working on Hurricane Matthew coverage. He and his photographer had just finished an interview and were walking to their news van on Broad Street when a man who was sitting on the sidewalk, later identified as Brian Eybers of Virginia, called Crump a racial slur, authorities said.On video, Crump is recorded walking over to the man and asking if he called him the n-word, to which Eybers responds, “Yes, I believe I did.”Eybers then said the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and God gave him the right to call Crump slurs, and he said he is “superior” to Crump."You really are a (slur),” Eybers says. “You’re ignorant.”With Eybers recording on his iPad and WBTV photographer Devin Futrelle shooting video, the verbal confrontation continued until Crump got into the news vehicle. Eybers then positioned himself in front of the vehicle so Crump and Futrelle could not leave.Crump called police and told them he was being harassed and was called the n-word by a guy who wouldn’t get out of the way, and he asked for someone to come and “run him off.”Police arrived at the scene, and ended up putting Eybers in handcuffs on the front steps of a nearby Catholic church.According to a police report, Eybers was arrested for disorderly conduct. Officers said they also found a crack pipe in his possession. The report said Eybers admitted calling Crump the racial slur.Eybers was booked on charges of congregating for an unlawful purpose and possession of drug paraphernalia. He is being held in the Charleston County Detention Center with bond set at $722.The Charlotte Observer reported that Eybers, who listed a home address in Arlington, Virginia, is a guitarist in a band called Face Control. It was not immediately clear what he was doing in Charleston.Crump has covered the Ku Klux Klan and interviewed many of its leaders over the years, both with hoods and without, The Charlotte Observer reported.“None of them have ever called me the n-word,” Crump told the newspaper.