Shane Walsh

Shane is a fictional police officer and an antagonist character featured in The Walking Dead multimedia franchise. He was introduced in the first issue of The Walking Dead ongoing comic book series by Image Comics. He was a major character in the series for the first six issues, but was ultimately killed off. A zombified version of Shane appeared later in issue #15. Shane also appeared in The Walking Dead television series on AMC, where he was played by actor Jon Bernthal. The character was given the surname Walsh and played a much more important role in the TV show than he did in the comic. The TV version of Shane was in every episode from seasons one and two.

TV Series
Shane Walsh grew up in King County, Georgia and was best friends with Rick Grimes, whom he had known since high school. Both Shane and Rick became police officers for the King County Sheriff's Office.

In 2010, Shane and Rick were sitting inside their police cruiser one afternoon where Shane began telling Rick about "the difference between men and women", complaining about a girlfriend who always failed to turn off lights in the house. After engaging in some small talk, they received a call from the Sheriff's dispatcher, indicating that the nearby Linden County Sheriff's Department was requesting assistance in the pursuit of a car full of armed criminals. Shane and Rick responded to the call and headed out on Highway 18. They stopped four miles west of State Route 85 and Shane laid down a spike strip while the others set up a road block. The car came towards them and ran off the road after hitting the spikes. The criminals emerged and the King County officers exchanged gunfire. Shane was one of the officers to take down the first gunman, who had also managed to shoot Rick Grimes. Shane ran to his side, but fortunately Rick's bullet proof vest had protected him. While helping him to his feet, another gunman came up behind Rick and shot him in an unprotected area of his back. Shane shot the gunman and then attended to Rick who was rushed to the Harrison Memorial Hospital soon after.

When Rick, Daryl, Michonne, Oscar, Glenn Rhee and Maggie Greene attacked Woodbury after rescuing the latter two who were kidnapped by Merle Dixon, Rick saw a hallucination of Shane shooting his way through the fog and hesitated on shooting him, causing him to mortally wound Oscar who was trying to escape. Rick shot Shane down and found out that it was just an ordinary Woodbury soldier.

Comics
Shane Walsh was a police officer from Cynthiana, Kentucky. One day, fellow officer Rick Grimes and he were engaged in a shoot-out with an escaped convict. During the firefight, Grimes suffered a shot to the chest and had to be taken to the hospital.

Notes & Trivia

 * The character of was created by series showrunner Frank Darabont and Charles H. Eglee, Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert based on concepts originally developed by Robert Kirkman.


 * Shane Walsh is not to be confused with Left in Darkness producer Shane A. Walsh.


 * In The Walking Dead comic book series, Shane was identified by his first name only. The surname Walsh was derived from the television series.


 * Chronologically, Shane Walsh has the first speaking lines on The Walking Dead.


 * Shane Walsh used a Mossberg 590 during the shootout with the Linden County criminals in "Days Gone Bye". This was the weapon he used to kill Linden County criminal 3, who had just shot Rick Grimes.


 * During production of season one of The Walking Dead, actor Jon Bernthal found that not all of the show's viewers appreciated his character's exploits, in particular, his mother. "She texted me," Bernthal stated, "How dare you be in the woods with another man's wife!"


 * Jon Bernthal ttended The Walking Dead media panel at the San Diego Comic-Con in 2010.

Final fate

 * In the comics, Shane was shot in the head and killed as a human by Carl Grimes. This took place in the climax of issue #6.


 * In the TV series, Shane Walsh is stabbed in the stomach by Rick Grimes after Shane tried to kill him.


 * Shane reanimated as a walker and was ultimately put down by Carl Grimes, who shot him in the head, much as he did in the comic series. This took place in "Better Angels".

Body count
The following is a running list of humans and zombies killed by.