Nineteen disabled people were slaughtered in their sleep during a killing spree at a Japanese group home for the disabled.
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Authorities identified the attacker as Satoshi Uematsu and said he had worked at the care centre for mentally disabled people in Sagamihara, a city of more than 700,000 people west of Tokyo, until February. According to hospital staff, Uematsu, donning a black tshirt, was first spotted at the facility at approximately 2:30am local time. The facility’s name means “mountain lily garden” after the local flower that is in bloom at this time of year. “This is not a case of a reactionary crime”, the prefectural governor said. “He went in the dark of the night, opened one door at a time, and stabbed sleeping people one by one”, Kuroiwa said. But he added: “The crime I committed is all my responsibility and I can’t possibly blame it on others”.
“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”, the letter reportedly said.
This winter, Satoshi Uematsu delivered a letter to the home of the speaker of the lower house of Japanese parliament that laid out his plan to kill hundreds of disabled people “for the sake of Japan”, starting with two care centers, including the one he broke into on Tuesday. That letter expressed his willingness to kill those with extreme disabilities. His bloody knife attack left at least 19 dead and 20 or more people injured.
The Kyodo news agency says the dead ranged in age from 18 to 70 and included nine males and 10 females. There hasn’t been a reported murder in the area in the last decade.
“How can such a thing happen in a peaceful place like this?” The woman said: “I can not remember such an incident ever happening before”.
His actual motive for the deaths of 10 women and 9 men, according to the current death toll from hospital officials, however, is still being investigated, according to local officials and it is not yet known whether he saw his actions as emancipating the disabled, or the more likely scenario being reported that has left the nation in shock and disbelief, that he simply wanted to massacre those with mental impairments.
“That kind of person can’t defend themselves”, Fujimura said, referring to the victims. “He just killed them”.
Police had recovered a bag with several knives, at least one stained with blood, the Kanagawa prefecture official said.
Japan has very strict gun laws that might lessen violent crime, but they can’t stamp it out.
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Eight children were stabbed to death at their school in Osaka by a former janitor in 2001. In 2008, a man rammed a truck into pedestrians in the popular Akihabara electronics district, then began stabbing people with a knife; seven people died in that incident. 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. In 1995, members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult carried out a sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, killing 12 people.
