Following last night’s new episode of The Walking Dead, comic creator and series writer Robert Kirkman spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the surprising death and why it had to happen.

Spoiler warning!

Shane ends up killing Otis in order to make an easier escape from a zombie attack.

Says Kirkman:

Entertainment Weekly: So, I want to ask you about Shane’s shooting of Otis and, using all my years of journalistic experience, here’s my question: What. The. F—?

Robert Kirkman: [Laughs] Well, you know, the Walking Dead is a world where you have to do what you have to do to get by. Starting with [this] episode, we’re going to see that Shane is appearing to be uniquely suited for this world.

It was quite possibly the least heroic act I’ve ever seen a theoretically “heroic” character commit.

I mean, it ends up being a somewhat justifiable homicide in that they were trapped, Otis was slowing him down, and Carl’s life hangs in the balance. It’s the Walking Dead and we’re existing in that gray area and we’re really pushing the boundaries of that. But at the end of the day, Shane shot that guy and left him for dead and ran off. It’s a pretty dark moment and it informs Shane’s character and sets up a lot of things that are going to be happening moving forward.

One of my colleagues said that she thought it was partly a revenge killing because Otis had, accidentally, shot Carl. The worrying thing is that she said she also thought Shane’s actions were completely reasonable because of that. And the really worrying thing is that her office is just across the way from mine.

I have been writing the Walking Dead — if you count the comic books — for coming up on 9 years now. And I’m constantly made uncomfortable by the things I learn about human nature from people that read the comic and watch the shows. So…Welcome to my world on finding out that your colleague thinks revenge killing is totally fine. Be mindful of how many of your paper clips you borrow!

Read more with Kirkman at this link! What did YOU think of Otis’ death? Was Shane justified?