LONG ISLAND, NY – A Williston Park man has been charged with attempted second degree murder after an argument over the AMC TV series “The Walking Dead” prompted him to shoot his longtime girlfriend, Nassau Police said.
Jared Gurman, 26, was out early Tuesday morning when an argument over the hit cable show spilled over into heated text messaging that culminated when he allegedly shot his girlfriend in the back using a .22 caliber rifle, police said.
“He’s passionate about it and that’s what started the argument,” Det. Lt. Ray Cote said in a press briefing at Nassau County Police headquarters in Mineola Tuesday afternoon. “... That argument got to such a argumentative point where the young lady decided she didn’t want to spend the night at his place and was going to go home."
The woman, whose name was being withheld, had been dating Gurman for about three-and-a-half to four years. She picked him up at a bar and drove him home. After she left their argument continued via text.
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Gurman “was not extremely influenced by the consumption of alcohol,” Cote said. “But there was some drinking. She had not been out the whole time with him. He called her, didn’t want to drink and drive. So she was bringing him home.”
Cote said that Gurman continued to argue about the show with his girlfriend via text message where “it got even more angry and bitter to the point where the young lady felt that she needed to look after him and perhaps he was going over the edge. He was just very angry and the tone of the text dialogue got to the point where she felt uncomfortable leaving him alone for the night and went over there to try and calm the situation.”
Gurman did not want his girlfriend in his apartment. He waited outside the building at approximately 2:40 a.m. holding a 22-caliber rifle, according to police.
"She tried to diffuse the situation and calm him down and told him, 'Let’s just go to bed,'" Cote said.
That’s when police say as the woman was walking up the stairs to the apartment that Gurman raised the rifle, pointing it at her and fired one round into her back.
The woman “pleaded” with Gurman to take her to North Shore-Long Island Jewish Hospital in New Hyde Park, where she was admitted with a pierced lung, shattered rib and a pierced diaphragm as well as uncontrolled blood loss. She has since been transferred to another hospital, where police said she is currently listed in serious but stable condition with the bullet reportedly still lodged in her body.
Cote said that originally Gurman portrayed the shooting as accidental. But upon investigation confessed that “this was not an accident,” Cote said. “He has told us that he pointed the weapon at her and that he fired the weapon.”
According to police, there was no reason to suspect that Gurman had any history of violent behavior or military service. He does have one prior arrest for a DWI in 2007 and owns three long guns that have been seized by police.
Police also noted that Gurman had numerous copies of the comic book on which the show is based scattered around his Williston Park apartment.
“It’s disturbing that there’s a picture of a family, gun shell casings and zombies,” Cote said, holding up one of the comic issues confiscated from Gurman’s residence.
Gurman reportedly “felt strongly” about the premise of the show where a military mishap could occur causing a virus to devastate the planet with a zombie plague. His girlfriend considered it “ridiculous” that a scenario could occur in real life.
Gurman is being charged with attempted second degree murder and was arraigned Tuesday at First District Court in Hempstead.
