A woman and two male police officers died on Thursday in a stabbing and shooting incident involving a man in possession of a hunting rifle in Nagano Prefecture.
The man has holed up in a nearby building, according to the police. Another man is injured but his condition is unknown, because he is too close to the building where the suspect is located and has yet to be rescued.
The police initially received an emergency call at around 4:25 p.m. about a man chasing a woman and stabbing her in Nakano, about 30 kms north of Nagano City.
Two police officers who rushed to the scene were shot. Both officers and the woman were taken to hospital where they died later.
The suspect was last seen wearing camouflage clothing, a hat, sunglasses and a mask.
Residents have been advised not to leave home for non-urgent reasons, and children still at local elementary and junior high schools were told to shelter in place.
The scene of the incident is an area dotted with homes and rice fields. A local woman in her 30s said children playing outside immediately went back home after they were alerted about a man carrying a gun on the run.
© KYODO
27 Comments
3RENSHO
Not a "hunting rifle" -- a shotgun. Death toll is now at 3 victims...
Eric
Get armed police outside those schools now
CaptDingleheimer
Send a SWAT team in and light that guy up.
obladi
Well, the guy can not escape, so it only ends one of two ways.
Michael Machida
The safe Japan thing seems to diminish after a story like this one coupled with all the rest of this and last week.
garypen
Three ways:
Surrender
Suicide
Killed by policeKaowaiinekochanknaw
A lot of pent up stress built up over the last few years.
We will now unfortunately see the side effects of those actions in many facets of life.
Larr Flint
Every day something new: robberies in Ginza, shootings, assaults and many more but yet still some people try to deny the fact that Japan is not a safe place anymore.
I heard that this guy has a shotgun, still being on the run or barricading himself in the house. I hope they will catch him soon.
What Im more afraid of is that there MIGHT be FOLLOWERS of this behavior as with many other incidents in Japan. I would advice to take care of yourself and be on high alert for at least next 6 months.
travelbangaijin
Had two train disruptions last week from jumpers, things happen here
El Salvador is safer than Japan right now - TKOLiving "Japan is so safe! lalala!"
Fighto!
Rest in Peace to the poor, innocent victims of this madman. May the police eliminate him ASAP.
All of these things happen in a typical small city in the US - every night.
Yes - Japan is one of the safest places on earth and getting safer by the year. Cherry picking rare events means zero. If anyone can point to crime stats that suggest Japan is becoming more dangerous, put them up.
EFD
Poor guy is going to bleed out if they don’t take control of the scene and get him out of there.
proxy
@Kaowaiinekochanknaw Yes, I agree and it seems to be worldwide and is worse in many places.
wallace
Nakano is a very small and usually quiet place.
Mark
It seems to me every time I read a story about stabbing or an attack the victims almost always end up dead which makes me wonder if the emergency or Paramedics are capable of preforming emergency care as required!???
Almost always dead upon on arrival at the hospital or soon after???
Mr Kipling
EFD....
They know he is already dead. But nobody officially "dies" in Japan until a doctor has certified them.
What ol' Jack Burton always says
Not to point out the obvious that gun death's are rising in Japan.
Or didn't you read the article.
Oh and by the way Abe was also shot to death recently too.
Crime is low in Japan compared to other places - but the truth is crime in general in Japan is rising.
There's many types of crimes that are rising -cyber , drugs , domestic abuse etc etc etc
purple_depressed_bacon
Take shelter? Where? At the school? They're asking them to be sitting ducks! Did the local police set up a perimeter to guard the entrances and exits? Did they call in reinforcements? It's like they've learned nothing from Abe's assassination the the latest attempt with Kishida.
It seems to me every time I read a story about stabbing or an attack the victims almost always end up dead which makes me wonder if the emergency or Paramedics are capable of performing emergency care as required!???
The "paramedics" in Japan are an absolute joke. No sense of urgency and lax medical training if at all. And forget bedside manners. I once called the paramedics and they loitered outside my apartment building for well over an hour trying to find a hospital that would take me. All the while I was strapped to the gurney writhing in pain, shaking and shivering and going in and out of consciousness and they didn't nothing. No pain meds, no words of reassurance, not even a blanket. One guy just stood staring blankly at the other guy on the foreign trying to bargain with a hospital to take a foreigner. If I had the strength to walk out of the ambulance I would have. Shaking and shivering and writhing in pain in my bed was a better option than calling for help.
Blacklabel
ex PM Abe ring a bell?
Blacklabel
2018:
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2018/06/a18a732354c9-update1-police-officer-killed-robbed-of-gun-in-central-japan.html
And several others in other years including 23 in 2007.
so no, not none since 20 years ago.
EFD
Wow, Twenty three you say? That’s almost one mass shooting in freedumb land. Just how many of them were non-yak?
I don’t doubt the data. It proves the point that gun crime is so rare here as to be virtually nonexistent. What gun violence that does occur is virtually all mob-related
As you are going on and on about the shooter not the gun, that must mean that Japanese are inherently less murderous/demented/what have you.
Or,…. It could be….. that almost no nutters have guns here.
The Abe assassin made a gun and that’s not only a unicorn event, it’s not deterrable.
Blacklabel
1/3 of them were non yak.
don’t worry, you are. Very wrong.
Jim
Thats because the police in Japan don’t draw their guns at the first sign of trouble. They are trained in that way. First they try to talk to the perpetrator to calm them down and use their gun only as a final resort. It also has to do a lot with most police in Japan probably not being straight shooters and they worry about firing in public area as the wayward bullet might hit a bystander. In this instance the perpetrator probably surprised them and shot before they could get their weapons out to defend themselves or react in any other way like taking shelter behind the car or something. Probably the whole police training system needs updating after crimes like these.
JJE
Update
Alleged male offender in custody.
Reports indicate he is the son of a local assembly member.
obladi
@garypen
Yes, and if we wait long enough, he might choke on his New Year's mochi. But don’t you think "Killed by Police" and "Suicide" are the same thing? once you have shot and killed two officers?
Hervé L'Eisa
Police say they've captured the man and say he's the son of the chairperson of the city council.
The woman who called the police and escaped from the house is his mother.
obladi
Glad that no one else was hurt.
obladi
Can I just say that the police appear to have shown incredible restraint?