Cannibal Corpse guitarist Patrick O’Brien was released from jail this past Friday, December 14th, at 21:01 after posting $50,000 surety bond. He currently stands charged with burglary of an occupied dwelling with assault and aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer. The first charge commanded a $30,000 bond, while the second commanded the other $20,000.
Those charges stem from a bizarre incident which took place last Monday, December 10th, in which O’Brien allegedly fled his burning Northdale, FL home, which was found to have ‘military-grade flamethrowers’ and various rounds of ammunition within it. The presence of said weaponry made the fire harder to extinguish for the responding firefighters.
During that time, O’Brien is alleged to have broken into the house of a nearby neighbor and pushed them to the ground upon his exit. It was alleged by those whose house he broke into that he had been taking of “the rapture” and that “someone was after him.”
Police later detained O’Brien nearby after tasing him as he allegedly charged at police officer with a knife. A judge initially denied him bail until partaking in a drug test. In the time since his arrest and losing his home, Deana Mazurkiewicz—wife of O’Brien‘s Cannibal Corpse bandmate Paul Mazurkiewicz—launched a crowdfunding campaign to get him back on his feet, pleading that “people not jump to conclusions until the full details of what occurred come out.”
In a post made to share the link for the aforementioned crowdfunding campaign, Gary Holt of Slayer/Exodus fame stated:
“He needs help, is gonna need help for a while, not talking about legal help, although he will need that too. But he’s gonna have a long road to travel. This is for his rehabilitation. People think Cannibal Corpse are millionaires and shit, they play death metal. One can make a living at it but they ain’t rich and he lost EVERYTHING. Help a metal brother out”
The band themselves have yet to publicly comment on the matter.
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