A man has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly stabbing and seriously injuring a 15-year-old schoolboy in a hardware store car park in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Tuesday. Several witnesses to the stabbing, which took place at 5 p.m., described the attacker's car to police who then found the vehicle in a convenience store car park in Ushiku at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday morning.
The suspect, who has been identified as Takashi Murakami, a 34-year-old trucker, has reportedly admitted to the charge. Police are still investigating the circumstances that led up to the attack since Murakami has given no motive.
According to police, the schoolboy was with his mother and was putting some shopping bags in the trunk of the car, when a voice called out, "Die!" The suspect then stabbed him in the back with a kitchen knife. The victim's mother and a store guard saw his assailant flee the scene in a car that had been parked a few meters away. The boy's injuries are expected to take a month to heal, police said.
Police are still searching for the weapon which was not in Murakami's car when he was arrested.
© Compiled from news reports
26 Comments
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ExportExpert
Another not case strikes out of the blue, what is it with these loose units?
Someone somewhere annoyed this guy so he takes out his frustration and anger on some innocent kid.
Seriously people in this country need to learn to control their emotions and behaviour and i also think some social skills wouldnt go amiss here.
ExportExpert
not = nUt
tamanegi
Ibaraki is dangerous.
Gurukun
Geeeezzz, whats up with these crazy people lately? I've heard of people getting stabbed in a robbery attempt, or a fight.....but stabbing someone just because?
moonknightskye
what the... killing someone without motive is creepy and scary...
Zenny11
moonknightsskye.
WHO was killed?
dishdash
here we go again - i bet the mum wasn't praying for this!
runwithscissors
Glad he was caught so quickly. Not holding my breath for the usual "keystones" yelling suspects to admit the police did a good job. No. In fact, I expect them to blame the cops for failing to prevent the stabbing!
Disillusioned
The second stabbing in Tsuchura in as many months. Hard to say if this was random or not with no details.
Gurukun
Figures the keystones haven't found the knife yet.
taj
Was this at Joyful Honda?
whereismayhem
This is the scary thing in Japan. When a crime occurs with no motive, you really can't protect yourself. In the west, don't walk by yourself at night, avoid bad neighborhoods, but here, 5pm daylight hours in a store parking lot! What can you do except be paranoid and look around all the time? Too dangerous here.
runwithscissors
Gukurun, I dared nothing. I encouraged people to give credit where credit is due for once, and also, to be fair and sensible.
tkoind2
Coward! Lashing out at a child. Too pitiful and pathetic to lash out at someone who may be able to fight back. So typical of these brain damaged twits who attack the innocent and weak.
nath
Thank God the boy will survive...
Elbuda Mexicano
Yes, it was Joyful Honda, these idiots should be sued! If a nutcase comes into a store to buy a KNIFE and starts yelling at the register to OPEN! OPEN the KNIFE, I think Joyful Honda is guilty for selling this WEAPON to a nutcase.
societymike
You can't be serious? If so, you seem no smarter than the stabber.
BBLeo
The accused need help immediately. Facing taking on a 15-year-old boy, instead to pick up his own size.
Zenny11
Does Joyful Honda sell Kitchen supplies? I thought they were a DIY store.
runwithscissors
Well, not sure who was yelling. But the trouble is that its hard to tell who is a nut and who just has Teret's etc. That puts stores in a position to be sued by anyone. I am sure there is someone we can blame for this nut running around in a store full of knives that had more clues than Joyful. His parents perhaps?
smithinjapan
Let's figure out the reasons on our own:
1) The kid bumped into him at the car park and did not say 'excuse me', so the man tried to kill him.
2) The man's mother was bothering him about his cell phone bill, so he just decided he would randomly try to kill someone.
3) He didn't like girls because they don't like him, so we just wanted to randomly kill someone... but of course didn't mean to do it.
4) He was mad about... ummm... (fill in blank)... so he decided to kill someone.
5) Whatever other random reason is the excuse in Japan these days for stabbing someone.
In any case, I hope the kid is okay, and the truck-driver does a lot of time.
dasyhard
Such a crazy country and it's going to get crazier. The potential of senseless violence is scarier than being in a war zone. Start wearing fatigues with body armor, protective mask, bayonet, and a XM25 rifle. The right to bear arms is here.
Monkeyz
Smithinjapan: He was stressed from work, so he wanted to kill someone.
Or
The boy looked so happy with his mother, and the man was jealous of his happiness.
Or
"I just wanted to stab someone to see what it was like."
SeriouslyCreamy
smithinjapan, you left out the most important reason...
6) This is Ibaraki.
Seriously, there have been a lot of stabbings here. Some of my Japanese friends have commented that it is only the Southern part of Ibaraki that is dangerous, because it's nearer to Tokyo. I don't know why?
And I have to agree with whereismayhem... back home I can generally know who to steer clear of. But over here there is no way of telling.
taj
Zenny, Joyful Honda has "EVERYTHING" household; indoor and out. I love the gardening supplies. The Tsuchiura store (nearer Tsukuba), is HUGE.
roomtemperature
smithinjapan:
Guess No.1
Guess No.2
Guess No.3
Guess No.4
Guess No.5
So my friend, with just 5 GUESSES (that sound like yet another classic example of your wishful thinking) you claim to "figure out" by yourself what really happened? Rich!!! But hey...