A police officer fired two shots at a car that drove away after the driver was questioned in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Tuesday.
According to police, they received a call at around 2:25 p.m. from a local resident, saying that a car had been parked along a municipal road with its lights on since early Tuesday morning, Sankei Shimbun reported. At 3:40 p.m., a police patrol responded to the call and a 33-year-old sergeant approached the car to question the driver seated inside.
Police said the driver appeared to be in his 40s to 50s. After a few minutes of questioning, the man drove off, hitting another police officer, 35. The first officer drew his gun and fired twice, once in the air as a warning and a second into the front right side of the fleeing vehicle.
© Japan Today
17 Comments
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sensei258
Has a warning?
sensei258
If he hadn't already hit a police officer I wouldn't think the shots were Justified
macv
police often travel in twos one should have drone ready if suspects flee, too many bystanders have been victimized by cops chasing fleers
extanker
Also sounds like the car may have been heading towards them. Totally justified to fire at the car. Shooting into the air is stupid though. It served no purpose and that bullet is coming down somewhere.
Kuribo1
Police revolvers in japan do not carry six rounds. The first chamber is empty, the second chamber is a blank firing round just for noise, 3,4,5,6 are the only chambers with an actual bullet.
Disillusioned
Was the car's registration recorded? I don't trust Japanese cops with their guns. There was a large dog went nuts near my place a couple of years ago and bit a couple of people. They dispatched 53 cops to get this dog. There was a total of 26 rounds fired at this dog in a heavily populated residential area. Only four rounds actually hit the dog. There were bullet holes in houses and fences all along the streets where they chased it. I remember one bullet hole at head height in the front wall of a house. It went straight through the front wall and embedded itself in the kitchen wall, of course. Personally, I don't think Japanese police should carry guns at all. They are never used for actual crime fighting or prevention. Even in this case with a warning shot and another shot fired into the car did nothing to stop the perp escaping. There has been a spate of incidences involving cops leaving their guns in toilets and a few cases of cops having their guns taken from them in a scuffle. The J-cops should replace their guns with tasers and/or video cameras. They only need special response teams with guns, like many other countries.
Bong Tittos
Cop who fired should be fired for the warning shot. This isn't the Wild Wild West. Does he know that the bullet will eventually fall back down to Earth? Moron.
rgcivilian1
With all this technology, no reason to fire the weapon.
Macoleco
Firing to the air is dangerous and irresponsible.
Maybe due to the lack of “action” in Japan, cops are not used to this kind of situations.
DOEL HARRY
As a former police shooting instructor you NEVER fire a warning shot. NEVER discharge your weapons into the air but if you do when that bullets comes down if it hits someone you are responsible and you may face criminal charges. The first thing the cops should have done when they approached the vehicle was have the driver turn off the vehicle and place the keys on the roof of the vehicle.
macv
set up drone teams of cops to chase fleers that would avoid bystanders getting hit,
have cops use paintball type guns that shoot bright un-washable dye ammo, inform all residents nationwide that whenever they see any vehicle, person, whatever with that dye to immediately report location to police
savethegaijin
I was under the impression that warning shots weren't kosher?
Viktor Cernatinskij
Seems Japanese police is learning how to shoot from US cops...
Bugle Boy of Company B
For those of you who don’t know, Japanese police are required to fire one warning shot. And that one goes into the air.
extanker
Wow, I checked it out and it's actually true. That's just... dumb. But I take back my criticism of the cop for doing it. It's not his fault he has to follow stupid rules.
Bugle Boy of Company B
I hear that a lot.
dabs