Remy Tumin
A former member of the popular hardcore punk band Turnstile has been charged with attempted murder after hitting the father of the band’s lead singer with his car, authorities said.
Brady Ebert, 33, of Silver Spring, Maryland, a guitarist and founding member of Turnstile, was taken into custody on Wednesday on charges of second-degree murder and first-degree assault. A district court judge ordered him held without bond. A hearing was set for Thursday afternoon.
According to charging documents, William Yates, 79, was helping his daughter and grandchildren out of their car on Sunday when he spotted Ebert driving toward his family, honking his horn.
Ebert and Yates live down the street from each other in Silver Spring, just north of Washington, DC. Yates is the father of Brendan Yates, Turnstile’s lead vocalist.
William Yates came down to the driveway to warn his family. But as he got to the bottom of the driveway, Ebert swerved toward him, the charging documents say. Yates then threw a rock and hit the back door of Ebert’s car, hoping to get Ebert “away from his family so they could all get into the house”, Yates later told the police. Yates’ daughter, Erin Gerber, grabbed her three-year-old son and dragged him onto the front lawn to avoid being hit.
Gerber told police that she pleaded with Ebert to stop, but instead, he allegedly put his car into reverse and backed up toward Yates. He then allegedly shifted into drive, accelerated quickly, made a sharp turn into the driveway and struck Yates, who was attempting to run away from Ebert, according to the charging documents. Ebert continued driving onto the front lawn and made a sharp turn toward Gerber and her son before fleeing the area. Yates suffered “severe trauma to both of his legs”, authorities said.
The encounter was captured on a neighbour’s security camera. A lawyer for Ebert declined to comment.
Yates told police that while he was on the ground, waiting for the ambulance, Ebert allegedly returned to the scene and yelled at Yates that he “deserved it”. He told investigators that Ebert had been “causing issues” with the Yates family since he was dismissed from Turnstile in 2022.
Most recently, on March 13, Yates was walking in the neighbourhood when Ebert allegedly pulled up next to him in his car and cursed and yelled obscenities at him, he told police. Ebert then made a three-point-turn and drove toward Yates “at a high rate of speed, giving him the middle finger and narrowly missed striking him”, according to the charging documents. A few days later, Ebert allegedly pulled up to the house as Yates’ wife and a friend were sitting outside and yelled obscenities at them, the documents said.
In a statement, Turnstile said it cut ties with Ebert “in response to a consistent pattern of harmful behaviour affecting himself, the band and the community”.
“After exhausting every available resource to support his access to help and recovery, a boundary ultimately had to be set when healthy communication was no longer possible and he began threatening violence,” the band said.
Ebert’s alleged threats had escalated in recent months, the band said.
“We are grateful that Mr Yates survived, has successfully undergone surgery, and we’re hoping for the best possible outcome in his recovery,” the band said. “We have no language left for Brady.”
Ebert and Brendan Yates founded Turnstile in Baltimore in 2010 with drummer Daniel Fang, bassist Franz Lyons and guitarist Sean Cullen, who left the band in 2015. The group worked its way up through Baltimore’s hardcore scene before establishing itself as one of the most popular punk bands of its era. Its 2021 breakthrough album, Glow On, propelled the band to mainstream stardom with TV commercials, Grammy nominations and an opening slot on Blink-182’s arena tour.
Last summer, singer Charli XCX proclaimed it would be a “Turnstile Summer” on a huge screen during her Coachella set. The band’s 2025 album, Never Enough – its first since Ebert’s departure – embraced a more expansive sound that includes classic pop-punk, pop-soul and thrash metal. In February, the band collected Grammy Awards for best rock album, for Never Enough, and metal performance for one of its songs, Birds.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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