A 23-year-old man in Grants, New Mexico, is in jail on murder charges after killing a friend with whom he’d been binge-watching The Walking Dead.
Damon Perry was drinking heavily and watching the AMC hit with his friend Christopher Paquin when Paquin allegedly tried to bite him. Perry responded by stabbing his friend, then brutally beating him with a microwave and an electric guitar.
“In my 13 years of doing this [job], that was the most brutal scene I have ever seen,” said Grants Police Department spokesperson Moses Marquez.
Police were called only after Perry left his apartment and was discovered chasing a woman around the complex with a knife. He was tackled by two maintenance workers who held him down until the authorities arrived. Perry confessed to the killing at the scene and blamed it on binge-watching the postapocalyptic show. He said he was afraid that Paquin himself was turning into a zombie.
Studies have linked binge-watching TV shows to depression, loneliness, and obesity.
According to police, Perry expressed remorse after sobering up in his holding cell. His bond was set at $800,000.
