Ambulance crew and police officers are seen outside a facility for the handicapped where a number of people were killed and dozens injured in a knife attack Tuesday, July 26, 2016, in Sagamihara, outside Tokyo.
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The governor of Kanagawa prefecture, Yuji Koroiwa, has apologised for not acting on warning signs. He reportedly also said: “The disabled should all disappear”.
None of the attacks involved firearms.
“When Uematsu turned himself in, he was found carrying kitchen knives and other types of knives stained with blood”.
The 19 people who died, ranging in age from 19 to 70, were all residents at the facility, according to the Kanagawa prefectural government and local fire department. No further details were available.
Tsukui Yamayurien facility in Sagamihara [West of Tokyo] was the site where 26 year-old Satoshi Uematsu broke into the window at 2 a.m. on Tuesday (1 p.m. EST).
The facility is located in Sagamihara, about 25 miles west of the Tokyo.
The actual motive for the attack was still being investigated and not yet clear whether he saw his actions as emanicipating the disabled or simply wanted to massacre.
Broadcaster NTV reported that the arrested man presented a letter to the speaker of the lower house of Japan’s parliament in February calling for euthanasia of disabled people. “I will carry out the plan without hurting the staffers, and I will turn myself in after I kill the disabled”. Authorities were made aware of the letter and police questioned Uematsu about it.
Uematsu said that by killing the disabled he would stimulate the world economy and maybe even prevent a World War III.
In 2008 in Tokyo a man ploughed a rental truck into a crowd of shoppers in Tokyo’s bustling Akihabara district before he stabbed passers-by, killing seven people and injuring 10 others.
“We received information from the police that there is no evidence of the attacker being related to Islamic State”, said Yoshihide Suga, the Japanese government’s spokesman and Chief Cabinet Secretary. He then tied up a staff member, stole a set of keys and then began stabbing residents, Sakuma said.
Workers at facilities for the elderly and disabled are often low-paid despite the physical and mental burdens.
“I’m very anxious but they won’t let me in”, he said, standing just outside the cordon of yellow crime-scene tape. “My daughter knew the culprit, I mean, they were acquainted”.
“They are truly innocent people”.
“Such a crime is unheard of in this slow and peaceful suburban neighborhood”, she said. “He was the kind of person that would greet you first”. It is the deadliest mass killing in Japan in decades.
A message posted on a Twitter account after the attack – apparently belonging to the suspect – showed a photo of a smiling man with dyed blond hair, who was wearing a suit.
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Uematsu was hospitalised on February 19, reportedly the same day he left his job, but was discharged 12 days later when a doctor deemed he was not a threat, the Sagamihara city official said.
