Satoshi Uematsu is escorted by police officers from local jail to prosecutors.
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After attacking almost a third of the center’s residents at his leisure, Uetmatsu drove to the Sagamihara police station and confessed to one of the deadliest crimes to take place in Japan since World War II.
Uematsu was held at the Tsukui police station after the attack and he was later being transported to prosecutors for questioning.
The 26-year-old–apparently motivated by a desire to eradicate the disabled–then started slashing people’s throats.
Uematsu handed himself in to the police in the early hours of Tuesday, less than an hour after he allegedly drove from his home to Tsukui Yamayuri-en care facility, tied up two employees, and attacked residents as they lay in their beds.
Yuji Kuroiwa, the governor of Kanagawa prefecture where the facility is located, said he had been told that Uematsu had suddenly changed before he was encouraged to voluntarily resign in February.
Many shocked Japan nationals were wondering why the suspected killer was discharged after just two weeks from a hospital to which he’d been forcibly committed under mental health laws and why the suspect, Satoshi Uematsu, who had written letters in February saying he would kill hundreds of handicapped people, was not kept under surveillance after he left hospital.
The Police are now examining what led the suspect to murder and attack disabled people with whom he had worked with until recently. The dead ranged in age from 18 to 70 and included nine males and 10 females, said The Kyodo news agency.
Most of the victims were stabbed around their necks, some with wounds as deep as 10cm, according to Japanese media.
Five months before the attack, Uematsu sent a letter addressed to the speaker of Japan’s lower house of parliament, in which he called for euthanasia for people with severe disabilities.
It has also sparked debate on whether and how the system for involuntary commitment and aftercare broke down, since Uematsu had previously made clear his intent to commit the crime. “If the time period drags on longer than necessary, it becomes a serious violation of human rights”, the newspaper said in an editorial.
“It would be easier to understand if there’d been a warning but there were no signs”, said Hasegawa, adding he thought Uematsu’s experiences on the job might have affected his mind.
It questioned if the treatment and follow-up care were sufficient.
It was Japan’s deadliest mass killing in decades. “It is vital to closely examine the system of support for the man and his family, and the contacts between the medical system and the police”.
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Uematsu reportedly told police in no uncertain terms, “I did it”.
