Japanese authorities on Friday arrested a 31-year-old man in a rural area for suspected murder after four people were killed in a rare shooting and stabbing incident involving a 12-hour stand-off with police.
The suspect had holed up in his house after shooting two police officers who arrived at the scene in response to a report that a woman had been stabbed using what appeared to be a hunting rifle in the shooting, the head of the Nagano prefectural police said at a press conference.
The suspect, who is the son of the head of thec Nakano city council, was detained by the police around 4:30 a.m. on Friday, about 12 hours after the first call to emergency responders.
The police chief, Iwao Koyama, said the two police officers and the woman were taken to hospital and pronounced dead within hours, adding that, it is a heinous crime that has aroused great fear in the residents of the prefecture and society at large.
He was arrested for the suspected murder of one of the police officers, Koyama added.
Another elderly woman also died after an apparent knife attack and had been lying on the ground outside the house since Thursday afternoon and police had been unable to get to her, media reported.
Shootings are extremely rare in Japan, where gun ownership is tightly regulated and anyone seeking to own a gun must go through a rigorous vetting process. The suspect had a licence for a hunting rifle, the head of the National Public Safety Commission said.
The suspect’s mother and aunt who were in the house with him escaped on their own, Koyama said.
