Nakano, Nagano Prefecture: Police arrested a 31-year-old man on Friday in connection with a knife and gun attack in the city of Nakano in central Japan’s Nagano Prefecture that left four people dead, including two policemen.
Masanori Aoki, 57, the first son of Nakano city assembly speaker Masamichi Aoki, was captured at 4:30 a.m. (7:30 p.m. GMT on Thursday), about 12 hours after the incident began.
In the incident, Masanori Aoki attacked with a knife, fired a hunting rifle, and hid in his father’s house in the city at around 4:25 p.m. Thursday.
According to Nagano prefectural police, he stabbed and killed 66-year-old Yuki Murakami, who lived near the house. He also shot 46-year-old Yoshiki Tamai and 61-year-old Takuo Ikechi, who had arrived at the scene after an emergency call. All three were confirmed dead after being sent to the hospital.
Apart from the three, an elderly woman found lying on the ground near the house was later confirmed dead, taking the total death toll in the incident to four. Earlier women were considered as men.
Aoki, wearing camouflage and sunglasses, hid in a house about 600 meters from the scene of the stabbing. Intermittent gunshots were heard in the area.
He was seen outside the house from around 2 pm on Friday. He re-entered the house and apparently later surrendered to the police.
There were two women in the house, including Aoki’s mother, when Aoki began to cry. The mother escaped from the house at around 8:35 pm on Thursday night and another woman, a relative of the suspect, fled at around 12:10 am on Friday.
The two women and the suspect’s father have been confirmed safe.
The scene is 1.5 kilometers west of Shinshunakano Station of the Nagano Electric Railway.
According to investigative sources, the Special Investigation Team of the First Investigation Division of Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department joined prefectural police officers stationed at the scene.
Access was restricted within a radius of 300 meters from the site during the incident, with local people living within the area being taken to a nearby school.