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Abe shooter initially considered targeting religious group exec

On Sunday, the Nara police changed the charge of Yamagami to murder from attempted murder and sent him to public prosecutors. (AFP)
On Sunday, the Nara police changed the charge of Yamagami to murder from attempted murder and sent him to public prosecutors. (AFP)
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10 Jul 2022 04:07:35 GMT9
10 Jul 2022 04:07:35 GMT9

NARA: The 41-year-old man accused of fatally shooting former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo in the western Japan city of Nara on Friday has told police that he initially considered attacking a senior official of a religious group, investigative sources said Sunday.

The man, Tetsuya Yamagami, who was arrested Friday on suspicion of attempting to murder Abe, told the police department of Nara Prefecture that his mother made a large donation to the religious organization and that his family was ruined as a result, the sources said.

He also said that he attacked Abe, thinking that the former prime minister had a link with the organization, according to the sources.

According to Defense Ministry sources, Yamagami, who worked for the Maritime Self-Defense Force in 2002-2005, told MSDF colleagues at the time that he was worrying about his parent’s religious activities.

The Nara police department is continuing its investigation into the shooting, suspecting that Yamagami’s frustration at the religious group developed into an intent to murder Abe and this caused him to change his target from the religious group official to the former prime minister.

On Sunday, the Nara police changed the charge of Yamagami to murder from attempted murder and sent him to public prosecutors.

Yamagami shot Abe from behind with a handmade gun around 11:30 a.m. Friday (2:30 a.m. GMT) while Abe was giving an election campaign speech in front of Kintetsu Railway Co.’s Yamato-Saidaiji Station in the city of Nara, the capital of the prefecture. Yamagami was arrested at the scene.

Abe was transported to Nara Medical University’s hospital in the city of Kashihara in the same prefecture. But he died shortly after 5 p.m. Friday due to loss of blood as a bullet that entered his body from his left upper arm damaged an artery. An autopsy on Abe also found wounds on his neck.

Multiple bullet marks have been found on the signboard of an election campaign car about 20 meters away from the site where Abe was shot.

The homemade gun used in the attack was about 40 centimeters long and was made up of two cylinder-shaped objects bound together with tape, which appeared to be its barrel.

While Yamagami fired the gun twice, there is a possibility of multiple rounds released at a time.

The police confiscated from Yamagami’s home in the city of Nara some apparent guns with characteristics similar to those of the weapon used in the shooting of Abe.

JIJI Press

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