The Toyama District Court has ordered prosecutors to conduct a psychiatric evaluation on a 22-year-old former Self-Defense Forces member who was arrested for killing a police officer at a koban (police box) and a security guard in June.
According to prosecutors, Keita Shimazu will undergo a psychiatric evaluation for four months to determine whether he is mentally competent to stand trial. The tests will last until March 11, 2019.
On June 26, Shimazu fatally stabbed Kenichi Inaizumi, the 46-year-old head of the koban, stole his gun and then shot to death Shinichi Nakamura, 68, a security guard at the front gate of a nearby elementary school.
Shimazu, who was shot by another police officer, was carrying four knives at the time of the attack.
Immediately before the incident, Shimazu, who served as a member of the Ground Self-Defense Force for two years from March 2015 through March 2017, had a quarrel with a manager of a restaurant where he worked part time. He told his family through an online messaging app that he had punched his boss at work and quit his job.
After the attack, police searched Shimazu’s home and found more than a dozen toy guns and books on how to commit murder.
© Japan Today
9 Comments
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sensei258
remember one can be mentally ill and still be legally responsible for his crimes only if he is determined to be insane (not knowing right from wrong) at the time he committed the crime would he be not be responsible
BertieWooster
It takes a team of psychiatrists FOUR MONTHS to decide whether he's insane or not?
And the court will take this decision seriously?
Do the hustle
I think it’s pretty clear he has mental issues, but that should not admonish him of his crimes.
Goodlucktoyou
Train people to kill, they will kill.
Aly Rustom
books on how to commit murder?? How is it even legal to sell or buy something like that?? And shouldn't the author go to jail too??
Michael G
'Toy guns' probably means airsoft guns.
Sync_
Umm, it doesn't work like that.
Even a toddler can kill under certain circumstances. They don't teach people to particularly kill others in military, or SDF for that matter.