TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images)
The argument started when the 26-year-old Jared Gurman was out with his longtime girlfriend on Sunday night. Their discussion turned to the TV show, "The Walking Dead" and Gurman expressed his conviction that a “military mishap” would soon occur in the drama, which is about human survival in the face of a zombie invasion, according to a Long Island detective. “He felt very adamant that there could be some type of military mishap that would result in some sort of virus or something being released that could cause terrible things to happen,” Detective Lt. Raymond Cote said at a Tuesday news conference, reported by Newsday.
But Gelderman, who has been in a relationship with Gurman for 3 1/2 years, found his assertion “ridiculous,” Cote said. As the boiling spat continued to escalate, she decided to leave and spend the night at her parents’ house. But the argument didn’t end with her exit, progressing into a text message argument instead. Disturbed by the “bitter and angry” exchange, police said, she headed back to his apartment in Williston Park to check up on him around 2:30 a.m.
There, she found Gruman sitting on the stairs, armed with a rifle. “She tried to defuse the situation, to calm him down,” Cote explained, according to NBC. “She was walking up the stairs when Mr. Gurman raised the rifle, pointed it at her and fired one round into her back. He drove Gelderman to a nearby hospital after the shooting. He was promptly arrested but when police questioned Gurman about his girlfriend’s gun wounds, he lied at first, saying the shooting was an accident, NBC reports. But he later admitted to firing the bullet: “Jess walked into the room and I fired the gun once and hit her,” Gurman later said in a police statement, according to Newsday. “She said, ‘Oh my God. What did you do?’”
Police described Gurman as “passionate” about weapons and had seized three long guns in his home, NBC reports. He was ordered jailed without bail — he should probably hope it doesn’t mirror the one that serves as a centerpiece in the show.
