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A 21-year-old man, who was warned by police on Wednesday to stop stalking his former girlfriend, was arrested after a standoff Thursday night during which he held his ex-girlfriend's mother hostage in her apartment in Tokyo's Asakusa area.
According to police, Shingo Tsutsumi, who lives in Aira, Kagoshima Prefecture, held his ex-girlfriend’s 55-year-old mother hostage for three hours starting at around 5:45 p.m., Fuji TV reported. The siege started after the woman came out of her apartment, followed by Tsutsumi who was brandishing a knife. The woman called for help.
When police arrived, Tsutsumi was holed up in the apartment with the hostage. He called police on the woman's cell phone, demanding that his ex-girlfriend come to the apartment. Police continued to negotiate with him until 9 p.m., when a special squad broke into the apartment from the balcony and the front entrance. Tsutsumi was lying unconscious on the floor, after apparently having stabbed himself in the chest. The woman also received stab wounds in her chest, arm and back, but is in a stable condition.
Police said Tsutsumi remained unconscious in hospital on Friday and said he will be charged with illegally confining and assaulting the woman, if he recovers.
Police said he had been warned not to stalk his ex-girlfriend after he was seen several times on the street outside her home in Nakano Ward. The couple broke up in April.
Police said the mother was at her daughter's apartment on Thursday morning and that Tsutsumi followed her home to Asakusa before the siege began.
© Japan Today
6 Comments
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Haaa Nemui
Stalking, stabbing, taking hostages... my first thought is I hope he doesn't.
nakanoguy01
i'm glad this ended on a relatively happy ending, with the mother only slightly injured and the daughter unharmed. and my sentiments exactly haaa. these guys need to kill themselves instead of killing those around them.
Goodlucktoyou
if he loved her, how could he stab her mother? Attempted murder please judge.
Haaa Nemui
Don't get me wrong though. I don't actually wish anyone dead. It's a knee-jerk reaction. The guy is sick, needs some serious help mentally and that probably involves being confined for a decent amount of time in an institute that can provide the right treatment. Otherwise he is a danger to himself and to those he believes he cares about. I think the police have it a bit tough in most cases but when somebody makes a complaint about stalking then I really hope they aren't just giving a warning and sitting back as if that's enough.
Strangerland
I don't wish most people dead either, but this guy wanted to die, and someone like this takes away from society, so if he dies, we're better off without him.
M3M3M3
This illustrates why it's always good to run your plans by someone before putting them into action. The constructive feedback you get can sometimes save you alot of hassle. In this case it would have been not to take the mother hostage.