A Polish death metal band’s U.S. tour has been put on hold after all four band members were arrested on kidnapping charges in Santa Ana, California, following a show on Saturday.
Michał Łysejko, Wacław “Vogg” Kiełtyka, Rafał Piotrowski, and Hubert Więcek of the death metal band Decapitated were arrested early Saturday morning after they finished playing a concert in Santa Ana. The four men, ages 27 through 35, were the subjects of an interstate police effort after they allegedly kidnapped a woman after a show in Spokane, Washington, on August 31. The band played seven tour dates in the U.S. and Canada between that show and the day police took them into custody in California.
Decapitated called their concert series the “Double Homicide Tour”—not an unusual name for a death metal series. But fewer than two weeks into the tour, Decapitated were facing real criminal allegations.
The alleged victim is a woman believed to have attended Decapitated’s Spokane show, Spokane Police Department spokeswoman Cpl. Teresa Fuller told the Spokesman-Review. But sometime after the band left the stage, she allegedly had a run-in with its members.
“On Sept. 1st, 2017, just before 2:00 a.m., Spokane Police received a call from a victim reporting an incident that happened after a concert in downtown Spokane,” Spokane Police said in a statement. “A patrol officer responded and assisted the victim. The report was then sent to the Special Victim’s Unit for follow up.”
Decapitated didn’t stay in town long enough for Spokane Police to make an arrest. The band had a concert in Oregon on the evening of September 1, and left the country altogether for a show in Vancouver the following day.
But like any touring band, Decapitated listed its next stops online. And when the band played a concert in Santa Ana, California on Friday, local police were waiting for them.
A video from Decapitated’s record label, Nuclear Blast, shows the band arriving onstage for the September 8 show. The concert, by all accounts, went smoothly; Decapitated had played seven shows since the alleged kidnapping. But while the band was relaxing backstage after the show, local police crashed the party.
“After they finished playing, they were kind of hanging out,” Santa Ana police Sgt. Javier Aceves told the Orange County Register. “There was nothing dramatic.”All four men face first-degree kidnapping charges in Spokane, and are expected to be extradited back to Washington.
The band, who was detained in California as of Sunday, has hired Spokane defense attorney Steve Graham. On Saturday, Graham contended that the alleged victim was not held against her will, despite her later call to police.
“There is another side to this,” Graham told the Spokesman-Review. “We have witnesses that can testify to the fact that the accuser came to visit the band of her own free will and left on good terms.”Graham also said the four bandmembers, all of whom are Polish citizens, had offered to surrender to Spokane police, but hadn’t received any response until their arrest.
“I made it clear that I could get the guys up here ASAP and they would cooperate,” Graham said.Decapitated’s record label did not return a Sunday request for comment. But in the hours after Decapitated’s arrest, their next scheduled venues announced that the band would not be playing that night.
“Unfortunately Decapitated will be unable to make tonight's performance as scheduled,” a Mesa, Arizona, concert venue posted shortly after the band’s arrest.
“Sorry everyone—due to Decapitated's legal problems, tomorrow's show has been cancelled,” a Texas venue where the band was scheduled to play Sunday added shortly after the arrests.