Eagles of Death Metal crew member killed, band to return to desert

A Palm Desert rock band that was onstage during the terror attacks in Paris that killed more than 120 people will return home, cutting its European tour short, it was reported Saturday.

One of the band’s crew members, Nick Alexander, 36, of Colchester, Essex in England was confirmed dead Saturday.

“The group is going to return,” an unnamed representative with French concert promoter Nous Productions told Agence France-Presse Saturday.

Eagles of Death Metal was set to tour the continent through Dec. 10 with their final show in Lisbon, Portugal. The band was the headliner for the sold-out show at the Le Bataclan theater Friday night and was about halfway through its set when the attacks took place.

Alexander was selling merchandise for Eagles of Death Metal, according to a Twitter post from his girlfriend, Polina Buckley.

Alexander’s family released a statement today regarding his death, stating “It is with huge sorrow that we can confirm that our beloved Nick lost his life at the Bataclan last night. Nick was not just our brother, son, and uncle. He was everyone’s best friend — generous, funny and fiercely loyal.”

The only official statement from the band’s representatives was posted Friday on both its Twitter and Facebook pages, suggesting that some band and crew members may have been unaccounted for.

The statement read, “We are still currently trying to determine the safety and whereabouts of all our band and crew. Our thoughts are with all of the people involved in this tragic situation.”

However, the brother of the band’s drummer, Julian Dorio, told ABC News that he and his bandmates were able to escape.

Michael Dorio said he was able to speak by phone with his brother, who told him the band was about six songs into its set when machine gun fire erupted, punctuated by screaming and yelling.

“He said they were mid-set … and they heard the gunfire and couldn’t really see because of the lights and quickly all kind of hit the deck on the stage and instinctually just ran to the back of the stage, through the exit doors, and took off running.

“They were probably one of the first group of people to be able to exit being that they were on a stage with … exit doors right behind them so they could just literally turn around, go down and leave,” he said.

The drummer’s mother told the Washington Post that her son called his wife from a police station. “It was awful,” Mary Lou Dorio told the newspaper.

David Ian Hughes, the brother of Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes, said in a Facebook post that Hughes and his bandmates were safe.

This morning, Hughes’ mother, JoEllen Hill-Hughes, also posted on Facebook, stating that Hughes and the band were safe.

“Thank you for all your prayers, your love, all the precious words and I am grateful that my son and his band mates are safe but I sit here and cry, I mourn with the mothers and fathers, their families, of all those that lost loved ones,” her post read.

French officials have reported 129 killed and 352 injured in the attacks that occurred at six locations throughout Paris on Friday night.

The Islamist extremist group ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.