A Turnstile gig in Richmond, Virginia, led to controversy final month after a police officer allegedly pepper-sprayed a teenage fan throughout the band’s set-closing chaos on September 24, 2025.
The incident passed off at Brown’s Island, the place the Baltimore melodic hardcore heroes had been mid-way by their traditional stage-invading finale to “Birds” when issues turned bitter. Native officers had been enlisted to assist with occasion safety — however one among them reportedly took issues a step too far.
Footage from the evening exhibits an officer elevating a pepper spray canister as followers clambered over the barrier to hitch the band. Whereas one concertgoer narrowly averted being sprayed, one other wasn’t so fortunate — the officer will be seen turning and blasting a separate fan straight within the face.
Within the clip, Turnstile bassist and vocalist Franz Lyons will also be seen stepping in to defend a fan from safety employees trying to tug them offstage.
In accordance with a brand new CBS 6 report, Richmond Sheriff Antionette Irving has since launched an investigation into the officer’s use of the chemical agent — which, it seems, was discharged straight into the face of a 15-year-old concertgoer.
Bodycam footage obtained by way of public information request exhibits the aftermath, with the teenager describing what occurred: “I acquired shot with, like — I believed it was a beer or one thing, as a result of folks had been going loopy the entire time. My face began burning. I could not see something, after which I went off to the aspect, yelled ‘pepper spray,’ as a result of that is what I believed it was, and it ended up being that.”
Visibly in ache and struggling to breathe, the teenager was reportedly helped by Lyons himself. In an announcement to CBS 6, the boy’s father recalled the surreal second he realised the bassist had his son’s telephone: “His telephone is asking me, and it is the [expletive] bassist from Turnstile who in some way acquired his telephone and is making an attempt to get me to the place my son is. Then I get there and he’s laying within the fetal place, pepper sprayed. I do not perceive.”
In accordance with one other witness captured within the footage, the officer allegedly instructed bystanders the discharge was unintended: “He stated he had it in his hand and did not understand the pin was out and it simply fired out,” the person stated. “The truth that he lied about it’s worse. I want to inform these guys sooner or later that he was disciplined ultimately.”
CBS 6 says it has but to obtain an official remark from Sheriff Irving relating to the allegations, although she confirmed {that a} preliminary investigation has been carried out and stays underneath evaluate.
A 14-minute compilation of bodycam footage associated to the incident has been launched by way of wtvr.com, with an edited model included in CBS 6’s on-air report.
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