A 16-year-old boy fell to his death from the third level of a shopping center in Yokohama, police said.
According to police, the incident occurred at around noon on Saturday at Lalaport Yokohama. Fuji TV reported that the boy was running after being suspected of shoplifting an item in a clothing shop.
A shop employee and a security guard chased the boy for about 300 meters before he climbed over a one-meter barrier on the third floor terrace.
The boy then fell about 12 meters. He was taken to hospital where he died a short time later.
No stolen items were found on the boy or in his bag, police said.
© Japan Today
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Kobe White Bar Owner
No stolen items were found on the boy or in his bag, police said.
When i was his age i used to always have store security following me around even though i had no intention/need/desire to steal anything, I remember it made me feel terrible ill be interested in a follow up story pls JT. Rest in peace young man.
sensei258
Why run if you didn't steal anything?
nishikat
Because A shop employee and a security guard chased the boy and this tends to freak some people out if they are on the timid side, especially. If he didn't shoplift and wasn't intending to then somehow he attracted attention to himself.
I don't know about this case, but I think in Japan if you intimidate someone to bail over a guardrail and they die it can be murder. But we will have to see how this plays out. Lots of liability, at least if he really didn't shoplift...and even if he did I'm sure there will be lots of trouble for the mall and perhaps these employees.
Strangerland
It's a good question.
And the fact that they didn't find anything shows why the conclusion many people draw about a given reaction to an incident is not always what they would expect. For example most people would expect a kid who hasn't stolen anything to not run, and yet he did. People don't always act the way others would expect, and often we ourselves don't react to a situation the way we thought we would.
That's why armchair warriors on the internet are often laughable.
Harry_Gatto
IF he had stolen something then he could easily have dropped/thrown it during the 300 metre chase, who knows.
Outsider
300 meters is a pretty good distance to cover. Strange how no one stepped in to assist and stop the kid - it might have saved his life.
Julio Robles
"Strange how no one stepped in to assist and stop the kid" Really, do you think that is STRANGE in Japan?
Richard Wood
Irregardless if he shoplifted or not, to chase a person 300 meters in a shopping mall which being at 12 noon on a Saturday is ludicrous. 1, he was only suspected of shopliftin, and 2, at that time of day, the mall was probably a bit crowded. Not only did they obviously put this young man's life in jeopardy but others as well. For what? A couple $100 at the most? Which most stores are insured for. Once he got a 100 feet or so from the store they should of stopped, especially when they only thought he shoplifted. And why did he run? Who knows for sure... He had 2 men chasing him who may or may not have identified themselves or gave a reason for chasing him. There are many reasons but to assume he is guilty just because he ran is not justification fir his death.
clamenza
Its clear the kid, rest his little soul, was not dealing with a full deck.
People don't just jump to their deaths because they feel a sudden "sense of uncomfortableness"
Anyone who can't see this is laughable
ensnaturae2
"Why run if you didn't steal anything?". Theres an overwhelming naïvity in such a question!!! It is similar to the intelligence test.."how many uses can you think of, for a brick". The idea that all authority is good, and that all those confronted and accused...must be guilty, is a mind blowing and terrible piece of amoral nonsense.
TheGodfather
"a mind blowing and terrible piece of amoral nonsense"
A perfect summary of this "news story" and of Japan as a whole...
TheGodfather
"a mind blowing and terrible piece of amoral nonsense"
A perfect summary of this "news story" and of Japan as a whole...
JeffLee
You tend to drop whatever you're carrying when you're trying to run as fast as possible, and 300 meters would be plenty of distance to ditch the goods.
sensei258
Overwhelming, really? Is it like the "overwhelming price" signs we see at Don Quixote stores?
Daniel Naumoff
Honestly, with the regards to the victim, 16 years is considerably enough on this planet to be aware of what you do and what is going on. Running from them, if ,in fact, he had not stolen nothing, was a stupid and impulsive choice. He could have thrown the stolen things away, but otherwise, it was a real waste, this whole situation.
DaDude
The only ones who really know what happened are the boy and the surveillance cameras. Let's just let the cameras do the talking if there were any.
smithinjapan
Strangerland: "And the fact that they didn't find anything shows why the conclusion many people draw about a given reaction to an incident is not always what they would expect."
Actually, it doesn't show anything at all except that he did not have anything at the time he was found. It's far easier to assume he ditched it along the 300 meter run that he ran despite not having stolen anything.
"For example most people would expect a kid who hasn't stolen anything to not run, and yet he did. "
Actually, most people would expect a guy who always tells people not to jump to conclusions not to jump to the conclusions, but here you are saying matter of factly that he did not steal anything, when we have not been given any smoking gun either way (they may well have video footage to prove it, but we don't have that info). And please don't try to back track later again.
Asakaze
@Julio Robles
Some guy is running. Two guys are running after the first one. How many people will join this sprint, without knowing who is running and why, in other countries? And Japan is always bad, heh?
Outrider
Oh my. The concept of personal responsibility has been swept away in the PC flood. This young man is responsible for his own death. That is the reality.
Daniel Naumoff
Asakaze, I recon the people running after the boy were dressed as a sales manager and a security guard. If anything, they were dressed decently, not thug-ish, since they were working in there.
stormcrow
"Why run if you didn't steal anything?"
If he was timid and chased by a security guard as pointed out above by nishikat, the teenager may very well have been panic stricken. A security guard probably looks a lot like a police officer to many young people in Japan just as they kind of do to me. In Japan, if you're arrested by the police (and that's what the security guard may have looked like to this teenager), you could be considered guilty until proven innocent for the most part. I know this for a fact because more than a few Japanese lawyers have told me this. Maybe that's why he ran, unfortunately.
Sadly, it's understandable and quite possible considering how shy some young Japanese people are (some of my HS students for instance) and how police (in this case a security guard) are regarded (albeit by some but not all) in Japan.
Tragic way to die regardless of whether he did or didn't steal a fabric. If he discarded it, it does not seem like it should have been too difficult for the pursuers to have noticed. Only 300 meters from the shop while under hot pursuit . . . certainly the guardman or shop employee would have noticed something being discarded or dropped. Sad story.
RIP
OssanAmerica
Two silly comments. It has nothing to do with Japan. It's the same in every city. I've seen purse snatchers run down Fifth Ave in New York City with the woman screaming and nobody stopped the fleeing perpetrator. People don't want to get involved, and in fact why should they get involved and risk injury, a lawsuit, whatever. Civilians are neither authorized nor trained to engage a possible criminal.
Outrider
Newsflash for the naieve: its standard procedure for a theif to toss what hes srolen while running away. I find these claims that he was shy so he ran even though innocent LUDICROUS.
SenseNotSoCommon
Not in Japan, it isn't!
Outrider
Sensenotsocommon, so japanese teenagers are immature therefore they run away and jump off buildings. Get real. Japanese kids (let alone adults) wont even jay walk, much less run from a person in authority.
MsDelicious
He dumped the goods when he ran. Should have been wearing a parachute though.
Outrider
The regessive left are falling over themselves to blame anyone but the theif.
Asakaze
Outrider, spot on all posts!
I'm just wating for some poster here to blame the security guard for the incident. How dare he to frighten a timid boy!
Bill Murphy
Wait for whatever the security cameras show regarding the accusation of theft, but... as usual, this is the initial report and I don't expect JT to publish a follow up (please let this last remark pass oh great robo-editor!). ... He was running. From within the store, from the entrance, from some point beyond the entrance? I suspect the store security was using a profile of shoplifters. (Everyone okay with stores profiling? Shrinkage is a cost passed on to everyone.) ... If - big if at this point - he did steal something, was it spontaneous? If he entered the store planning to steal, he should have planned an escape route. ... Call me callous if you will, but this dead kid has provided people with a few minutes of entertainment.
Fadamor
Depending on the teen, 16 years old is not a "little" kid. If I see some kid who looks like he should be a varsity lineman at the local high school barreling down on me, I'm not likely to stop his progress unless I have a REAL good reason to.