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Actions of shooting and stabbing shook Japan, four people died. Photo/Reuters
TOKYO – A man has been arrested after four people were killed in a rare shooting and stabbing in Japan .
The suspected attacker stabbed a woman and shot two policemen with a hunting rifle in Nagano prefecture. A fourth death toll was later confirmed.
Police have named the suspect as Masanori Aoki, the 31-year-old son of a local politician.
According to Japan’s Kyodo news agency, during the incident on Thursday, police received a call at around 4:25 p.m. local time about a man chasing and then stabbing a woman.
An eyewitness working in a nearby field told Kyodo that the man’s attack on his first victim was carried out with a 30 cm long knife.
The motive is unclear. When the witness asked the suspect why he stabbed the woman, he replied: “I killed her because I wanted to.”
Aoki – who was reportedly wearing a camouflage uniform, hat, sunglasses and a mask – then allegedly shot the police officer responding to the emergency report.
It was not immediately clear how the fourth victim – described as an elderly woman – died.
Aoki then barricaded himself for nearly 12 hours inside his father’s house in a quiet residential area of Nakano city, along with his mother and aunt. His father, Masamichi Aoki, was chairman of the Nakano city assembly.
