Former Turnstile guitarist Brady Ebert was arrested for attempted murder last week after driving his vehicle into William Yates, father of Turnstile singer Brendan Yates. A new report from the Baltimore Banner today provides further details on the altercation.
Ebert, who remains in custody in Montgomery County, says video evidence will exonerate him by painting a different picture than the one presented by law enforcement. "I’m sorry, but this is pure self-defense," he reportedly told a court commissioner following his arrest. "I was straight-up attacked."
In a statement last week following Ebert's arrest, Turnstile said they removed him from the band in 2022 "in response to a consistent pattern of harmful behavior affecting himself, the band, and the community." The new Banner report includes transcribed audio from the 2022 hearing where all four of the other members of Turnstile sought peace orders, a type of restraining order available in Maryland, against Ebert.
Brendan Yates reportedly told the judge, "Over the last couple years, [Ebert's] behavior has kind of elevated to a point, including heavy drug use and a lot of factors that have made him pretty unreliable. And with recent threats, we feel it’s for our safety to file this peace order just to neutralize potential threats to our physical safety." When pressed for specifics, Yates testified that Ebert threatened physical harm against his bandmates if they didn't pay him $10,000. "There’s also a statement from my father of him creeping around my father’s house at 8 in the morning," Yates said.
"We collectively decided that he was unfit to play in the band," drummer Daniel Fang said at the hearing. "Our evaluation is that he’s become resentful. He’s been spiraling with his acute drug use. In a group chat that was addressed to all of us, he threatened our safety." Bassist Franz Lyons and guitarist Pat McCrory were also present at the hearing, seeking peace orders for themselves.
Judge Carol M. Johnson ultimately denied the peace orders because she believed the band had not presented evidence of specific threatening behaviors from Ebert within the past 30 days. "There’s just no history," she said. "In fact, you guys have known each other for a very long time. It seems like this is in fact just aberrant behavior of someone who was under the influence."
