Ex-Turnstile guitarist Brady Ebert says he hit Brendan Yates’ father with his car in “pure self defence”
The former co-founder and guitarist of Turnstile, Brady Ebert, has claimed that he hit vocalist Brendan Yates’ father, William Yates, with his car out of “pure self-defence”.
Ebert, who co-founded Turnstile in 2010, has been charged by the Montgomery County Police Department with one charge of attempted second-degree murder and another charge of assault for an incident that took place on March 29th.
Ebert was alleged to have been shouting obscenities and honking his horn at William’s home; as the father came out to warn the rest of his family, Ebert allegedly swerved towards William; moving out of the way, William is claimed to have thrown a rock at the vehicle, and the ex-guitarist drove toward the family and injured William’s legs.
The 79-year-old father, William, was hospitalised with serious injuries; the band followed the incident up with a statement which clarified that, thankfully, he had made it through surgery and looked to be on the mend.
As per local news source The Baltimore Banner, Ebert told a district court commissioner that the surveillance video that the police had obtained, capturing the tragic moment, would disprove the narrative that law enforcement had deemed truthful.
Reportedly, Ebert shared, “I’m sorry, but this is pure self-defense. I was straight-up attacked”. He allegedly also called William a “maniac” and added that William “deserved it”.
From the hospital, William alleged that this isn’t the first time the musician has tried to strike him down with his vehicle.
The Baltimore Banner also obtained prior court audio recordings from 2022, the time when Ebert was let go from the band after increasingly disturbing behaviour. In this unearthed audio recording, the Turnstile frontman Yates said, “Over the last couple of years, his behaviour was kind of elevated to a point, including heavy drug use and a lot of factors that have made him pretty unreliable.”
The ‘Birds’ singer continued, “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.”
As a result, the group was granted a temporary restraining order against Ebert; in their statement of response to the recent incident, the Baltimore band added, “Turnstile cut ties with Brady Ebert in 2022 in response to a consistent pattern of harmful behaviour affecting himself, the band, and the community.”
The Grammy-winners continued, “In the years since, his baseless tirades have continued in public. We never addressed it. […] Over the past few months, his threats only escalated further. … We have no language left for Brady.”
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