Cannibal Corpse guitarist arrested on charges of assault and burglary

(Image credit: Chelsea Lauren/WireImage - Getty)

Cannibal Corpse guitarist Pat O’Brien has been arrested and charged after an incident in Florida.

ABC (opens in new tab) and WFLA.com (opens in new tab) report that on Monday night, O’Brien allegedly broke into a home in the Greater Northdale area close to Tampa while two people were in the house.

One of the victims inside is said to have confronted O’Brien, which resulted in the guitarist pushing a woman and then running out to the backyard.

Police officers responded to the incident and found O’Brien hiding behind a fence. However, it’s reported that O’Brien failed to comply with their requests and allegedly ran towards one of the deputies while brandishing a knife in his right hand.

Police deployed an electronic control device and O’Brien was taken into custody and charged with “aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer with a deadly weapon and burglary of an occupied dwelling with assault or battery.”

The story then takes an even stranger twist, with reports on WFLA.com (opens in new tab) saying that a home, close to where the incident took place, was on fire around the same time.

Firefighters eventually managed to contain the flames, but were hampered in their efforts due to explosive ammunition which was stored inside the house. Police told the website that the home belongs to O'Brien.

Meanwhile, ABC (opens in new tab) say that police have not yet disclosed whether the burglary and fire are related.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers and magazines as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. After initially joining our news desk in the summer of 2014, he moved to the e-commerce team full-time in 2020. He maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott grew up listening to rock and prog, cutting his teeth on bands such as Marillion and Magnum before his focus shifted to alternative and post-punk in the late 80s. His favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Drab Majesty, but he also still has a deep love of Rush.