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Police in Kyoto said Tuesday they have charged a 17-year-old youth with murder after he admitted to setting four buildings on fire, one of which killed two elderly occupants.
According to police, the youth, who was initially arrested over another arson case, has confessed to torching the buildings in Kyoto's Fushimi Ward last August, TBS reported. In one of the fires, the garage of the home of Masanori Kitamura, 67, and his wife Fumiko, 65, was set on fire. It quickly spread and engulfed the house. The couple were both pulled out of the flames and sent to the hospital in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest, but died a short time later.
The suspect was quoted by police as saying he thought there might have been someone home when he started the fire, TBS reported.
A few minutes before that fire was reported, firefighters received a call about another fire at a warehouse only 300 meters away. Four cars were completely charred. Then, about 10 minutes after the second fire was reported, a call came in about yet another fire at another empty warehouse. Finally, at another private residence, the residents discovered their bamboo screen and door ablaze, and extinguished the fire themselves.
All four fires erupted within a 400-meter radius, and all were within a span of only 15 minutes. Police said they received eyewitness reports about an unknown man hurriedly riding his bicycle away from the scene of the second fire.
The suspect said he started the fires because he was stressed out, according to police.
© Japan Today
5 Comments
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sensei258
Judges, do what's right and put this punk away for the rest of his life.
Dennis Bauer
Sensei he is under age, suspended sentence it will be :(
almxxx
Just an example of "The moving finger having writ, moves on". No matter how he is punished, his victims are still dead. Being dead is being free from the problems of life.
Disillusioned
No, he started fires because he is another deranged teenage prodigy of a failed education system!
Speed
Let me guess. Since he's a "minor" he'll go to reform/juvenile detention for a few short years and be off on his merry way while he leaves in his wake a poor dead elderly couple and a lot of destroyed property.
They need to revise the law and start prosecuting teens, at least those 16 and over, who commit major crimes like this to real jail time. Get rid of this not being able to be named nonsense, too.