Private broadcaster NTV reported that Uematsu told police he had been fired from his job, though officials said only that he left the position.
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Yasuyuki Deguchi, a criminologist, said Uematsu’s alleged actions were typical of someone who bears a grudge and seeks revenge, because it appeared he planned out the attack, and then he turned himself in to police.
It also said police found several knives in his bag, some of which were covered with blood.
Previously, the attacker worked at the facility between 2012 and early 2016 before leaving of his own accord.
A deranged former employee at a home for the mentally and physically disabled is accused of murdering 19 people-“nine men between the ages of 41 and 67 and 10 women between the ages of 19 and 70″-in a small town about 25 miles from Tokyo, according to The Asahi Shimbun”.
Local police quoted the suspected assailant as saying “I did it “upon his arrival at Tsukui Police Station, to which a bloodied Uematsu had driven himself after the attack to hand himself in”.
Shortly after 2 a.m. Tuesday (3 p.m. Monday ET), Uematsu entered the site by breaking a window.
An employee called the police about 2:30 a.m. on Tuesday, to report the ongoing attack. “It is better that disabled people disappear”, he was said to have added.
At least 19 people were killed and 25 others wounded in a knife rampage at a facility for the mentally disabled near Tokyo on Tuesday, local media reported.
According to the Kyodo news service, alleged killer Satoshi Uematsu threatened an attack nearly identical to the one carried out on Tuesday. They said he turned himself in half an hour later.
He said it would launch a “revolution” that would “stimulate the economy and prevent World War III”. But then he began to make abusive remarks to the severely disabled people living there, said the home’s director, Kaoru Irikura. “I can kill 470 disabled people”.
Being that he had knowledge of the layout of the facility, investigators said that Uematsu made his way around the building systematically stabbing the vulnerable residents multiple times as they either slept or lay helpless in their beds.
Authorities have confirmed 19 deaths at a facility for the handicapped in the city of Sagamihara.
According to reports, the incident took place at a care centre in the mountains where some 149 patients, many of whom were aged or bedridden, were completely defenceless.
Five days after he delivered the letter, Uematsu finished working at the care facility. “I can’t forgive him”, he said.
Another source said, “I don’t know about the suspect’s condition, but perhaps he should’ve been under watch for a little longer”.
Her daughter, Honoka, said: “He had a cheerful impression…. He was the kind of person that would greet you first”. The incident shocked Japan and led to increased security at schools.
The facility cares for more than 150 people with a range of disabilities.
Local officials described what happened.
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Details of the attack, and whether the victims were asleep or otherwise helpless, were not immediately known, although a cryptic letter he sent to Japan’s Parliament in February gave a glimpse into Uematsu’s dark turmoil.
