The man accused of assassinating former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been arrested and identified as 41-year-old unemployed Tetsuya Yamagami. Police say he admitted shooting her with a homemade gun at a rally on Friday. But what else is known about this suspect so far?
A former Japan Self-Defense Forces (Army) worker has confessed that he planned to kill Abe for his alleged ties to a religious organization that he hated for causing trouble for his family, according to leaks from authorities to local media.
The suspect would have contemplated attacking a leader of that group before choosing Abe as a target and had studied the program of electoral events in which he participated, reports Efe.
He finally decided on the same day that the former prime minister gave a rally in his city in the middle of the street, next to a train station.
He showed up there on Friday more than an hour early, and after Abe began his speech, he walked slowly up behind him and opened fire twice after pulling his homemade gun out of a bag.
The Nara Regional Police, which was in charge of the event’s security device together with a special team from the Tokyo Metropolitan Area Corps, has admitted that there were “problems” in its deployment that allowed the fatal attack to take place.
Abe was taken to a hospital in Nara with injuries to his chest and neck that caused him to go into cardiorespiratory arrest, and he died about five and a half hours after the incident from bleeding caused by injuries to his arteries and heart. , according to medical services.
Yamagami explained to the police that he had served in the Japanese Navy, the Maritime Self-Defense Force, for three years beginning in 2002.
He recently worked at a factory in western Japan for about a year and a half, but resigned in May 2022, according to local media reports.
“His attitude towards work was a problem. I am surprised,” the former plant manager told the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.
Yamagami spoke to police after the attack in a “clear and precise” manner, according to officials.
Former high school classmates, interviewed by public broadcaster NHK, commented that the suspect was a calm person, but not a loner. He is good at sports and academic studies.
“The suspect stated that he had a grudge against a particular organization, saying he committed the crime because he believed former Prime Minister Abe had a connection with it,” police said Friday.
They did not give the name of the organization in question, but the Japanese media claim that it is a religious group, citing investigative sources but without giving names.
NHK and the Mainichi Shimbun noted that Yamagami’s family had suffered as a result of his mother’s large financial donations to the organization.
Yamagami, who would have previously belonged to that organization, had originally planned to target the head of the group, but later switched focus to Abe, who he believed had promoted the organization in Japan, according to Kyodo News, also citing anonymous investigative sources.
Although his motivations remain unclear, evidence collected by the authorities suggests that the suspect had been planning his attack on the influential Japanese politician for some time.
Although his motivations remain unclear, the evidence compiled by the authorities suggests that the suspect had been planning his attack on the influential Japanese politician for some time, reports Efe.
The suspect had studied the program of electoral events in which Abe participated, and considered trying to attack him at a rally held last Thursday in the city of Okayama (west) although he ruled out doing so because the event was held in an auditorium and with Access controls.
Supposedly Yamagami decided to wait until Friday because Abe’s rally that day was in the middle of the street of the city where he himself had his address and in front of a train station.
The alleged assailant arrived at the scene more than an hour in advance, and after Abe began his speech, he slowly approached from behind and opened fire twice after pulling his homemade weapon from a bag.
Yamagami said he had used a handmade weapon to carry out the attack, and footage from the scene showed a basic, square, double-barreled weapon covered in heavy-duty black tape.
The homemade weapon “had a mechanism by which it could fire six shots at once,” according to NHK’s publication of the detainee’s statement.
Police searched his home and seized “several handmade items, including weapons”.
Police found explosives at his Nara home with which Yamagami is believed to have been trying to make a bomb.
At least one of the weapons is suspected to have been made several months ago, the Jiji news agency said.
Jiji also reported that Yamagami had participated in live-fire exercises in the Navy. Officials said Yamagami had found out about Abe’s visit to Nara online.
It is believed that he took a train to the station where the former prime minister was giving a speech.
In dramatic footage of the shooting, Yamagami wears brown pants and a gray shirt. Her mouth and nose are hidden by a white surgical mask, and she wears narrow-rimmed glasses under long bangs.
He was wearing a shoulder bag from which he apparently took the gun, before he dropped it on the ground when he was detained.
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