At least 25 other residents of the facility were wounded during the attack, 20 of them seriously.
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It is the deadliest mass killing in Japan in decades.
About 2:30 a.m., one of the eight staff members of the Tsukui Yamayuri En facility called the police to report the break in and alerted them of the knife attack by Uematsu.
26-year-old Satoshi Uematsu, who worked at this facility until February entered through a window at two a.m. Tuesday, Kanagawa Prefecture officials stated at the news conference.
Asahi Shimbun reported that the suspect was quoted by police as saying: “I want to get rid of the disabled from this world”.
He was investigated by police for making the threats and sent to a hospital for an emergency evaluation for delusional behavior, local media reported, citing police officials.
Such mass attacks are extremely rare in Japan and the fact that this one took place at a residential center where patients, many of whom were aged or bedridden, were completely defenseless has shocked this small community nestled in the mountains, as well as the broader country.
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“Doctors confirmed the deaths of 19 people”, the spokesman told AFP.
The Japan Times reported that some residents and staff may have been tied up during the attack.
Thirteen people were killed and thousands of commuters fell ill in a crime that deeply dented the national sense of security. In 2008, a man rammed a rented two-ton truck into a crowd of shoppers at a busy Tokyo intersection, then jumped out and began stabbing people, killing seven. He was forced to resign after “several disturbing episodes”, including an incident where he threatened to kill hundreds of disabled people “for the sake of Japan”, according to the New York Times.
“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.
The facility, with its 30,000-square-meter area, can house up to 160 residents and according to local sources as many as 149 residents were on site when the attack happened, many of whom are believed to be in their sixties. He was carrying the bloodstained cloth and knife, officials said.
He said, “The rumor in the neighborhood was that Uematsu quit his job after it was found out that he had tattoos”. A few things we won’t tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. “My daughter knew the culprit, I mean, they were acquainted”.
Local government officials have identified the suspect in the knife attack as Satoshi Uematsu.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the government will do everything in its power to determine what and how the events at the care centre unfolded with the aim to prevent such an incident happening again.
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The facility employs more than 200 people, including part-timers, with nine of them working the night of the attack, Hirosue said. Doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo dispersed sarin nerve gas on Tokyo subway trains and killed 13 people.
