Investigative sources said the assailant – now unemployed – used to work at the Tsukui Yamayuri-en care facility where he attacked dozens of disabled residents, either harbouring deep resentment for those with disabilities or for the facility itself.
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The suspected attacker, 26-year-old Satoshi Uematsu, was a former employee of the Tsukui Yamayuri-En facility for the disabled in Sagamihara, a city about 30 miles southwest of Tokyo. A man turned himself in at a police station about two hours later, police said.
Broadcaster NHK cites police who say the man targeted patients “who were unable to communicate their feelings”.
He sent letters to politicians in February in which he threatened to kill hundreds of disabled people during a night shift, Kyodo news agency reports.
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He reportedly said he wanted people with disabilities to “disappear”.
The suspect worked at the facility until February, broke in through a window about 2 a.m. Tuesday, Kanagawa Prefecture officials said at a news conference.
The residential care facility, the name of which translates in English to Tsukui Lily Garden, is run by a social welfare organization and was initially developed by the local government.
And, of course, there was the 1995 release of sarin gas by the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo in Tokyo’s subway system that killed 12 people and harmed thousands – an attack that stands out because it was committed by an ideologically motivated group rather than an individual. As of July 1, there were a total of 149 people – 92 men and 57 women – as long-term residents there. Police said Uematsu later drove himself to a police station where he surrendered without incident.
The truth was shocking: A deadly knife attack that left 19 dead at the facility for disabled, made all the more painful because the home was an active member of the community whose residents and staff were generally well-liked.
Uematsu had also delivered a letter to the office of Japanese lawmaker Tadamori Oshima on February 15 which allegedly stated, “I envision a world where a person with multiple disabilities can be euthanized, with an agreement from the guardians, when it is hard for the person to carry out household and social activities”. According to hospital staff, Uematsu, donning a black tshirt, was first spotted at the facility at approximately 2:30am local time.
June 8, 2008: Seven people are killed by a man who slams a truck into a crowd in central Tokyo’s Akihabara electronics district and then get out and starts stabbing people.
“My reasoning is that I may be able to revitalize the world economy and I thought it may be possible to prevent World War III”, the rambling letter says.
While not immune to violent crime, Japan has a relatively low homicide rate of well under one per 100,000 people.
Some have pointed to societal factors limiting mass killings in Japan, and likewise at the breakdown of previous societal norms as a factor when such events do occur. Gun ownership is very strictly controlled and enforced in Japan, where mass killings are an extremely rare phenomenon.
Another knife attack killed eight children at an elementary school in Osaka in 2001.
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“It’s unthinkable that something like this could happen not just in Japan but, here in our community”, Mitsuo Kishi, a 76-year-old man who lives near Uematsu, also told the Post.
