After binge-watching The Walking Dead, Damon Perry saw his friend turn into a zombie and killed him, police say.
Perry was drinking heavily and hanging out with Christopher Paquin in a Grants, New Mexico, apartment when he supposedly saw his buddy morph into a ravenous zombie. Perry responded by allegedly beating his friend to death using his bare hands, feet, knives, a microwave oven, and an electric guitar.
“It was one of the absolute worst [crime scenes] I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been with the department for 15 years,” Grants, New Mexico, police department spokesman Moses Marquez told The Daily Beast.
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Two maintenance workers had subdued Perry after he began sprinting around the low-income-housing complex, wielding scissors, and chasing other terrified tenants, according to police. (It is unclear if Perry believed these residents, too, were turning into zombies.)
When police arrived, Perry allegedly confessed to the murder and blamed the it on binge-watching The Walking Dead on Netflix.
Perry—a 23-year-old New Mexico resident who made a living doing small odd-jobs—is in custody facing a murder charge. (A magistrate court set his bond at $800,000, cash.)
Despite the bizarre and savage nature of the crime, police say they do not suspect mental illness, though an investigation continues. The suspected root of this gruesome murder is more mundane: binge-drinking.
“The suspect [also] attributed it to being highly intoxicated,” Marquez said. (Apparently, some people can get so monstrously drunk that watching a popular TV show can compel them to act out their darkest zombie-apocalypse fantasies.) It is unclear what his blood alcohol content was at the time of the alleged killing.
Now, in the sober light of day, Perry is no longer concerned about any supposed zombie neighbors or zombie friends trying to bite him. At the very least, he has started to feel bad for the life he took and the people he terrorized, according to the Grants P.D. spokesman.
“He seems remorseful,” Marquez said. “He’s had the time to sober up and realize what has happened, and he has expressed remorse.”
