The attacker said he would enter two homes for disabled people when there is few staff on duty before restraining the employees and killing patients with physical and mental impairments and handing himself over to police. NHK said 15 people were killed and 20 were wounded, while Kyodo News service put the death toll at 19, including four who were critically injured and later declared dead.
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The assailant is the 26-year old man Satoshi Uematsu.
Broadcaster NTV said the man told police he had been fired and held a grudge against the care centre. “I will be more careful about locking the door and windows, at least on the first floor”.
A doctor at one of the hospitals where victims were taken said some had deep wounds to the neck.
One doctor told NHK: “The patients are very shocked mentally, and they can not speak now”.
A fleet of ambulances, police cars and fire trucks converged on the Tsukui Yamayuri-en centre, a low-rise complex nestled against forested hills, which was cordoned off and draped with yellow “Keep Out” tape.
The attack has left 25 others injured.
According to the Kanagawa prefectural government, a total of 149 people with intellectual disabilities were living in the facility on a long-term basis as of the end of April.
“When Uematsu turned himself in, he was found carrying kitchen knives and other types of knives stained with blood”. His motive for the assault remains unclear. Police received another call at around 2:45 a.m., which said, “A man broke into our facility”. They said he turned himself in half an hour later.
“I woke up at about 3am because of the blaring noise of the sirens”, he told AFP.
Mass killings have happened in Japan from time to time. “Like in foreign countries, I think institutions need to develop a plan in operational management and prepare for a worst-case scenario, given that criminals are inevitably born”.
8 June 2001 – man with a history of mental illness stabbed eight children to death at an Osaka primary school in 2001.
After that rampage, Japan banned possession of double-edged knives with blades longer than 5.5 centimetres (about two inches).
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There have been conflicting reports about exactly how many people were killed and injured. The incident shocks Japan and leads to increased security at schools.
Details of how he did that, and if the victims were asleep or otherwise helpless, were not immediately known, although a cryptic letter he sent to Japan’s Parliament in February gave a peek into Uematsu’s dark turmoil.
Close Japanese ally the United States quickly offered sympathy.
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The attack shocked neighbors, many of whom said they had a good relationship with both the staff and the residents of the home in the hilly, semi-rural community in Sagamihara.
