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A 54-year-old knife-wielding woman, who was holed up with her mother inside her apartment in Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture, was arrested Wednesday after a seven-hour standoff with police.
According to police, the standoff began on Wednesday morning at around 10 a.m. Fuji TV reported that the woman called police saying she had killed someone. When police and an ambulance arrived on the scene, the woman called 119 again, complaining that the siren was too noisy. She then told police that she would kill herself if police tried to enter the apartment in which she lived with her mother.
After seven hours of trying to talk the woman into coming out, a special police squad broke into the barricaded apartment from the balcony at around 5 p.m. and arrested the woman who was brandishing a knife. The woman’s elderly mother was not injured and there was no one else in the apartment.
Media reports on Thursday said the woman had been speaking incoherently since her arrest.
© Japan Today
7 Comments
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TheGodfather
Well done to the woman for a well-executed "cry for help" and for not actually harming anyone, or herself.
Hopefully this incident will energize the Japanese authorities into doing something about this well-documented problem as the woman is probably very, very scared right now...
smithinjapan
Good on the police for handling this without harming or allowing anyone to be harmed.
Robert Emmett
It seems that the woman in a desperate need for attention resorted to this level. Pleased to hear there wasn't any fatalities. I hope the woman receives the attention and help she obviously needs.
Mocheake
I think she was probably speaking incoherently before her arrest too.
sensei258
You made that up all by yourself?
Alix Hooper
Knives should be banned! It must have been an assault knife.