‘Shoot me up’: Tragic details on Matthew Perry’s final hours revealed

Friends actor Matthew Perry passed away in October 2023 from drowning and the “acute effects” of ketamine. Photo / Getty Images

Matthew Perry told his live-in assistant, “shoot me up with a big one” before his ketamine death.

The Friends actor passed away in October 2023 aged 54 from drowning and the “acute effects” of the horse tranquiliser – and his former long-term employee has now admitted in court documents he injected the star with three doses of it in his final hours.

Kenneth Iwamasa, 59, made the confession in a set of plea agreement papers he signed after he and four others were arrested in connection with supplying Perry with the drugs that killed the actor.

The papers show the injections were administered by non-medically trained Iwamasa from 8.30am on the day Matthew died in the hot tub of his US$6 million ($9.9m) Pacific Palisades mansion in Los Angeles.

They say after the first dose, Perry’s assistant gave him another one four hours later – and yet another 40 minutes later.

It was before the third injection Perry told him: “Shoot me up with a big one.”

The actor is said to have then told Iwamasa to start up the hot tub where Perry was later found dead with his head in the water after Iwamasa had run a set of errands.

Perry’s words were revealed as his stepfather Keith Morrison spoke out to say he hopes “unscrupulous suppliers of dangerous drugs will get the message” after five people were arrested in connection with the actor’s death.

In a statement issued to Entertainment Weekly, he said: “We were and still are heartbroken by Matthew’s death, but it has helped to know law enforcement has taken his case very seriously.

“We look forward to justice taking its course and we’re grateful for the exceptional work of the multiple agencies whose agents investigated Matthew’s death.

“We’re hoping unscrupulous suppliers of dangerous drugs will get the message.”

Perry’s doctors have also been accused of abusing their “position of trust”.

DEA administrator Anne Milgram said about the case: “Matthew Perry’s journey began with unscrupulous doctors who abused their position of trust because they saw him as a payday, to street dealers who gave him ketamine in unmarked vials.

“Every day, the DEA works tirelessly with our federal, state, and local partners to protect the public and to hold accountable those that distribute deadly and dangerous drugs – whether they are local drug traffickers or doctors who violate their sworn oath to care for patients.”