Japan in shock as man stabs 19 to death in disabled center
Print Edition
A knife-wielding man broke into a facility for the disabled in a town near Tokyo early yesterday and killed 19 patients as they slept in Japan’s worst mass killing since World War II.
At least 25 other residents were wounded in the attack at the Tsukui Yamayuri-En facility for mentally and physically disabled in Sagamihara town.
“This is a very heart-wrenching and shocking incident in which many innocent people became victims,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference in Tokyo.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said: “The lives of many innocent people were taken away and I am greatly shocked. We will make every effort to discover the facts and prevent a reoccurrence.”
The suspect was a 26-year-old former employee of the facility who gave himself up to police. The man, Satoshi Uematsu, said in letters he wrote in February that he could “obliterate 470 disabled people.” He said he would kill 260 severely disabled people at two areas in the facility during a night shift, and would not hurt employees.
“My goal is a world in which the severely disabled can be euthanized, with their guardians’ consent, if they are unable to live at home and be active in society,” Uematsu wrote in the two letters given to the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Kyodo news agency reported.
Uematsu was committed to hospital after he expressed a “willingness to kill severely disabled people,” an official in Sagamihara said.
He was freed on March 2 after a doctor deemed he had improved, the official said.
Uematsu lived near the facility, and a neighbor described him as a polite young man who always greeted him with a smile.
“It would be easier to understand if there had been a warning but there were no signs,” said Akihiro Hasegawa, 73. “We didn’t know the darkness of his heart.”
The suspect apparently began changing about five months ago, said Yuji Kuroiwa, the governor of Kanagawa prefecture, where the facility is located.
“You could say there were warning signs, but it’s difficult to say if this could have been prevented,” he told reporters.
“This was not an impulsive crime. He went in the dark of the night, opened one door at a time, and stabbed sleeping people one by one,” Kuroiwa said. “I just can’t believe the cruelty of this crime. We need to prevent this from ever happening again.”
Staff at the facility called police at 2:30am with reports of a man armed with a knife on the grounds. The man wore a black T-shirt and trousers, the reports said.
The dead ranged in age from 19 to 70 and included nine males and 10 females, Kyodo said. Police have recovered a bag with several knives, at least one stained with blood.
The 3-hectare facility was established by the local government. Surrounded by tree-covered mountains and on the banks of the Sagami River, it cares for people with a wide range of disabilities.
The facility’s website said the center had a maximum capacity of 160 people, including staff.
Japan has one of the lowest crime rates in the world and residents of Sagamihara said they were in shock. The last murder in the area was 10 years ago.
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