NARA: Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, the alleged shooter of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is suspected of crafting a gun by himself a few months ago, investigative sources told Jiji Press Saturday.

A gun left at the site of the shooting in the western Japan city of Nara was 40 centimeters in length and 20 centimeters in height. The weapon is believed to have been made by Yamagami.

The Nara prefectural police department found some apparently similar handcrafted guns during its raid of the suspect’s home in the prefectural capital city, conducted after the shooting. At least one of the guns was made several months ago, according to the investigative sources.

In police questioning, Yamagami, a resident of the city, admitted to shooting Abe and stated that he did it because he had a grudge against a specific religious group with which he believed the former prime minister had a link, the sources said.

The alleged attacker, a former member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, denied that he committed the shooting out of grievances with Abe’s political belief.

Yamagami shot Abe, also former leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, when he was delivering a stump speech for an LDP candidate in Sunday’s election for the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the country’s parliament, in front of a train station in the city of Nara on Friday.

The suspect also said he learned about Abe’s visit to Nara on a website showing his schedule for campaign speeches and went to the site by train.

The prefectural police will continue their investigation into how and why he committed the crime.

Also on Saturday, the Nara police announced the result of an autopsy on Abe, saying that he died of loss of blood due to damage to the artery under his left and right clavicle.

A vehicle carrying Abe’s body left prefecture-run Nara Medical University’s hospital, where he was treated after being shot, Saturday morning and arrived at his home in Tokyo later in the afternoon.

According to Defense Ministry sources, Yamagami was hired as a fixed-term Self-Defense Forces member in 2002. He was discharged in 2005 after serving the full three-year term. During the term, he joined live-fire shooting exercises at an MSDF unit to which he was deployed.

JIJI Press