'We are in a state of shock': Loved ones mourn Nashville musician Kyle Yorlets after fatal shooting

Suzy Byrne
·Editor, Yahoo Entertainment

A 24-year-old Nashville musician is dead, and five juveniles have been charged in the shooting.

Kyle Yorlets, the lead singer of Carverton, was robbed and gunned down behind his home at about 3 p.m. on Thursday. On Friday, three girls, ages 12, 14 and 15, and two boys, 13 and 16, were all charged with criminal homicide after being arrested at a local Walmart.

A Metropolitan Nashville Police Department spokesperson said police had been investigating a 12-year-old girl who had run away from home, reported the Tennessean. During the search, the girl was seen in a Snapchat video in a car “with other young people with guns.” Investigators think the juveniles, allegedly driving a stolen car, were in an alley behind Yorlets’s home, and they approached him to rob him. While they allegedly took his wallet, the shooting is believed to have occurred after he refused to give up his car keys.

After the shooting, a wounded Yorlets made his way inside his house and remained there — for an hour or two — before he was discovered by a housemate. He still had a faint pulse, according to the police spokesperson, and was transported to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. However, it was there that he was declared dead.

The police spokesperson called Yorlets an “absolute innocent victim.”

Police have not yet identified which of the minors pulled the trigger, but said all five are known to police and the court system. Per local law, the three suspects over the age of 13 have been publicly identified. However, many media outlets are opting not to reveal their identities because they are minors.

Yorlets, a vocalist and guitar player, grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania but headed to Music City with bandmate Michael Curry to establish themselves as a pop/rock band, according to the Carverton website. In Nashville, they met Christian Ferguson and Michael Wiebell to “complete the band,” which played at the Firefly Music Festival and has toured across the country.

On Friday the band paid tribute to Yorlets, who graduated from Belmont University in Nashville in 2017 and worked at local restaurants, saying, “On February 7, 2019, we lost our brother, best friend and bandmate Kyle Yorlets. We are in a state of shock and are having to grasp the reality that is now in front of us. We are heartbroken. Our condolences for his family and loved ones and all the lives that he touched. We will never forget Kyle, and though he is gone too soon his legacy is here to stay.”

The band had an album release show planned for next month, among other scheduled events.

The publicist for the band, Jen Appel, said that funeral arrangements are pending, according to the Tennessean.

A colleague from the restaurant Pastaria, where Yorlets worked, said he was “such a kind and forgiving person.” She asked people to “send prayer and good thoughts towards the Yorlets family, his girlfriend, his friends and extended work families.”

A GoFundMe has been established to help with funeral costs and travel expenses for Yorlets’s family. So far it has met over $7,000 of its $10,000 goal.

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