Tenerife Beheading: Was Killer Copying Predator?

Friend says Deyan Deyanov loved sci-fi film, decapitation scenes
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted May 17, 2011 10:43 AM CDT
Tenerife Beheading: Deyan Deyanov May Have Copied 'Predator' Decapitation Scenes, Says Friend
In this video footage made available from Atlas TV, the scene of an attack, on the Canary Island of Tenerife, Friday, May 13, 2011.   (AP Photo/Atlas TV)

Deyan Deyanov, the man accused of beheading British grandmother Jennifer Mills-Westley on Tenerife last Friday, was obsessed with the movie Predator and may have been trying to copy its decapitation attacks, a friend says. Deyanov, 28, even had a tattoo on his arm featuring characters from the film’s fictional language; he especially enjoyed the way the alien in the movie beheaded its victims. Similarly disturbing: He made a cellphone video four years ago stating, “I don’t like human beings," the Telegraph reports.

Meanwhile, more tragic details emerge regarding the days and months leading up to the attack. Deyanov was originally sent to a psychiatric unit after assaulting a security guard on Jan. 4, claiming when he was arrested he was “a prophet of God.” Despite the police warning that he was a danger to the public, he was later released on bail. When he failed to report to the court as arranged, a warrant for his arrest was issued May 10. But due to the fact that he was homeless, police couldn’t locate him; just three days later Mills-Westley was killed. Click for more on the gruesome crime. (More Jennifer Mills-Westley stories.)

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