Police fire at fleeing driver after he rams patrol car

Not sure if this story is incomplete. They were both on coke and the 5 bystanders IF im not mistaking are all police officers. However couldn't figure out how they got hurt. Shrapnel from the shots? One of the officers that got hit with the car was hit by the open car door.

papi, I think they were hit by the car... which kind of smacks of attempted murder to me.

Japanese cops very, very rarely use their guns, so I suppose the officer who fired thought that the situation had escalated so much that it would be dangerous not to shoot.

J cops opening fire is a big deal. they should be careful. how do we know the driver was on coke?

His wife said the both of them had taken stimulants that night.

so the police fired at an unarmed man? Madness - pure madness. The lot of them should be fired.

@kimuzukashiiiiiiiii all 6 of them? Im not saying you are wrong but I saw the reconstruction last night and I only saw one person getting hit with a car.

@akbfan: last night on the news it said they both had used コカイン

This is the second incident in two weeks where the police was forced to shoot someone in a car. They shot and killed a guy in Tokyo on New Years after he stole a taxi and went on a driving rampage. If you use a vehicle as the weapon in Japan, the police will shoot you.

Stimulants could be a wide range of things like Methamphetamines or Amphetamines unless coke is the popular drug in Japan.

Stimulants = Coke or Ecstasy no doubt

Seems like the Japanese police are more willing to use their firearms these days.

I thought I read somewhere that they weren't allowed to shoot at someone fleeing. I also think it'd likely be amphetamines though, historically popular on these islands and common excuse for wild car chases.

so the police fired at an unarmed man? Madness - pure madness. The lot of them should be fired.

Its a tough call. On the one hand, he was armed with a vehicle. On the other hand, he did not seem to be using it as a weapon until the police stopped him. But from there, who knows what could happen? Its unlikely the guy would just drive on slowly after being stopped for questioning and ramming vehicles. I think he would be dangerous from then on, to me, you, people driving on the road and kids crossing the street. Police shooting at cars is risky, but people driving like maniacs is probably even more risky. I cannot fault the police here.

However, I do have to wonder about one thing: If cocaine were legal and prices reasonable and the openness that comes with legalization the norm, would any of this had even happened? Its much easier for people to notice when someone has an alcohol problem because alcohol is legal. But cocaine problems are hidden at all costs, until BANG, stuff like stealing cars and running from police happens.

Stimulants does not necessary mean drugs. How did they catch them? There is a big hole in the story. Guy tries to flee, cops fire, guy is shot, girl tells the story. So what happened in between him getting shot (where did he get shot?) and the girl telling the story?

"Stimulants does not necessary (sic) mean drugs."

Was the fleeing driver high on caffeine?

Those energy drinks pack quite a kick!

First, the car was stolen. Second, the man was out of control. Third, after he was stopped, he started ramming the police car as well as the officer trying to arrest him. What was the police to do? Let him go and threaten the public? It dos not say that the man was killed. It does not say the woman was shot. I think the police should be commended for the restrained use of force under the circumstances.

Could have been paint thinner, glue, marijuana, over the counter meds..etc

Well said, ham21

Did the wife think admitting to be on meth would mitigate anything?

Ramming a cop is attempted murder with a deadly weapon. They'll probably get longer for the ice.

If someone, on drugs, rams me "multiple times," with a stolen car, I am emptying the magazine and letting God sort it out. Good on that cop, he saved the taxpayers millions of yen it would have cost us for his lifetime confinement.

The Japanese media has been referring to 覚醒剤 - stimulants - which usually refers to methamphetamine, the major drug of choice in Japan. It can however refer to other drugs as others have mentioned, including a few that are legal. So it's impossible to know exactly which was being referred to in this case without an official confirmation. Which you can be assured is not forthcoming.

i personally think these kind of incidents where the police open fire is an example of why the police in Japan should be unarmed like the British Police. however i did read of another guy who was shot here recently after stabbing one officer. i would be interested to know if the cops in the US would be opening fire in circumstances like the above story as some kind of reference. with such a low crime rate in Japan apart from in the big cities, i always wonder why they have guns at all, especially somewhere here, Akita THE BIG CITY hahaha. even the cops wear wellingtons here in the boondocks. and guns

"Stimulants does not necessary (sic) mean drugs."

"Was the fleeing driver high on caffeine?"

LOL@such narrow thinking..... There are A LOT of legal stimulants out there, prescribed meds etc.... But I know it might be too difficult for your tiny brain to comprehend that, all cool

Doug Birbeck

personally think these kind of incidents where the police open fire is an example of why the police in Japan should be unarmed like the British Police i always wonder why they have guns at all

They have guns because there is a significant organised crime presence in Japan which has access to guns and uses them frequently at each other, and occasionally at police. This is not the case in the UK.

If they were forced to open fire to defend themselves or others from serious injury or death then I'd say the shooting was justified.

Jaymann/Doug, what should he have done if unarmed?? I do agree we don't have the whole picture here but from what I read it sounds fair.

@DougBirback: I don;t know other cities but in Las Vegas, METRO cops are trained 'Shoot and ask Later"/ There are many cases of cop shootings. Often mistaken identity, too. What goofy cops get? Abouy 1 month of deesk duty and back to duty. You can;t compare Japan and USA. In USA, guns are not decoratuon. Guns are to shoot.

Readers, other countries are not relevant to this discussion.

If someone, on drugs, rams me "multiple times," with a stolen car, I am emptying the magazine and letting God sort it out.

Yeah, that is what some people are worried about with police; An automatic decision to empty the magazine resulting in a bullet hitting a four year old in her own home and deciding that God sorted that one out. I certainly hope the police in this case were more deliberate, squeezing each round off with a care to where it went.

Stimulants does not necessary mean drugs.

From Wikipedia:

A drug is a substance which may have medicinal, intoxicating, performance enhancing or other effects when taken or put into a human body or the body of another animal and is not considered a food or exclusively a food.

If it's a stimulant, it's designed to change the chemical state of the body from its normal state to a stimulated state. That makes it a "drug" no matter WHAT the actual stimulant was. Caffeine is a drug and the active ingredient in coffee.

n. noun

An agent, especially a chemical agent such as caffeine, that temporarily arouses or accelerates physiological or organic activity.

A stimulus or an incentive.

A food or drink, especially an alcoholic drink, believed to have a stimulating effect.

adj. adjective

Serving as or being a stimulus; stimulating ..........................................................................................

So, some people use stimulant for excuses when they had booz or coffee.

According to the police the woman tested positive for stimulants.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/kansai-news/20140113/4447051.html

According to the Japanese law on stimulants, both Amphetamine and Methamphetamine are illegal. To my knowledge, the law does not apply to caffeine. If it were alcohol, the police would have said she tested positive for alcohol. However, she would not have been arrested for being under the influence of alcohol if she was not the driver.

Is a vocabruary stimulant" now Japanese? Just like kohii, biiru, kokoa? I mean coffee, cocoa, beer? Isn;t stimulant a police lingo?

In the comment section for this report there are quite a few that do not actually READ the report only bits and pieces then ask stupid question like 'maybe it was Coke or perhaps uppers'.

The clearly shows they do not comprehend what is written or just plain do not READ the reaport.

I am so happy to live where the police are unarmed - they don't make mistakes like shooting 'unarmed people'. It is insane that people support those actions. Think about where could extrapolate too. Madness - Pure madness!!

Toshiko,

I am not sure I understand what you are asking. Did you read the article I linked? The Japanese word for stimulant and the stimulant law mentioned in the article does not refer to coffee, cocoa or beer. It refers specifically to Amphetamine and Methamphetamine. That is what this woman was arrested according to the police.

Actually they also use the term to refer to cocaine.

Actually they also use the term to refer to cocaine.

Yes, that is also true. Good point.

Are they allowed to open fire on a suspect if they have no reason to believe he is armed?

If they are trying to kill you by hitting you with a car? The car IS a weapon and they ARE armed.

adamorJAN. 15, 2014 - 03:27AM JST Stimulants does not necessary mean drugs.

From Wikipedia:

A drug is a substance which may have medicinal, intoxicating, performance enhancing or other effects when taken or put into a human body or the body of another animal and is not considered a food or exclusively a food.

If it's a stimulant, it's designed to change the chemical state of the body from its normal state to a stimulated state. That makes it a "drug" no matter WHAT the actual stimulant was. Caffeine is a drug and the active ingredient in coffee.

Why are you researching the word drug when you should be researching the word stimulants?

Slumdog: You wrote. Toshiko, I am not sure I understand what you are asking. Did you read the article I linked? The Japanese word for stimulant and the stimulant law mentioned in the article does not refer to coffee, cocoa or beer. It refers specifically to Amphetamine and Methamphetamine. That is what this woman was arrested according to the polic

Th article mentioned stimulant. It did not exclude Coffe, Beer, Cocoa.

" i would be interested to know if the cops in the US would be opening fire in circumstances like the above story as some kind of reference"

Are you kidding? Cops in US make Swiss cheese of unarmed "suspects" on a near daily basis. Read up!

This punk, is lucky to be alive. The woman as well! Hopefully they both learn to straighten up.

Ham21, I can understand that but they were driving away from the police at that point so were no longer a threat to the policeman's safety.

What about the public? They were in a stolen car. The man did not respect any authority and was going to resist any attempt to bring him under control. The police ,as you stated, did not know if they were armed with a gun, knife, etc.. Had the police let them go, and they decided to rob a store or steal another car, anyone trying to stop them would certainly be in danger. The police are under obligation to protect the public by nature of their job. They are given the authority, by the consensus of the public in a democratic society, to maintain the peace and protect the public, to the best of their ability.

Ham21, I completely disagree with you. Yes, it's the police's responsibilty to protect the public but they should not be allowed to start firing guns freely at unarmed suspects and I question whether or not they are legally allowed to. This is especially true when they are firing at a moving target in the dark. A member of the public could easily have been hit by a stray bullet by this reckless response. The police did not have to let them go, as you stated. They could have followed the car and called for backup to assist them in doing so. This is Japan, not the Wild West.

Osaka?? Why am I not rerribly surprsed?? And if this idiot fool tried to run away from the police and ran over and hit the cops?? So they shoot at him?? Great!! Too bad they did not shoot this scum drug addict dead!! One less druggie off the streets of Japan and this world!! Good on the Osaka police!!

Inside the car were a 22-year-old man at the wheel and a 26-year-old woman. When an officer tried to question the man, he started to drive away, hitting the officer and then the patrol car a few times as he tried to get clear. Another police officer opened fire, hitting the driver. Five other police officers were injured in the incident, TV Asahi reported.

I wouldn;t comment here to defend this guy but I read some people criticizing cops.

At what point do you start calling an object a weapon? You keep insisting that he was unarmed. It is my position that he was armed, that is why they call it attempted murder when you intentionally use a car to run a person down. Maybe it is different in Japan, but in the US the car can be a weapon when it is used to commit murder or attempted murder. You say the cops recklessly fired their guns. It seems to me that they used restraint as a passenger was not hit and he was not killed. If he was let back on the road after being almost caught, do you realistically think he would drive in a reasonable fashion? I am not in favor of anyone being shot, however there has to be some control when people choose to act recklessly and violate the law endangering anyone in their way. This man's actions were his choice, he got caught, he tried to escape endangering himself, his girlfriend, and the police. If he escaped, there is no reason to think he would not continue to endanger others.

Of course this idiot fool on drugs woukd endanger others if the police would have not stopped him!! Good in the Osaka police!!

He already injured a cop using the car as the deadly weapon. He then injured more cops.

The cops 'allege' that they were injured and in danger - sounds very much a justification to shoot at an unarmed man. No careful thinking person could condone this.

Now Japan too has drug problems! What a shame!