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Abe shooter initially planned to attack religious group leader
Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, has also said he had a grudge against a "specific organization" -- possibly the religious group -- that he believed was linked to Abe, according to the police.
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This image received from the Asahi Shimbun newspaper shows a man (centre R) suspected of shooting former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe being tackled to the ground by police at Yamato Saidaiji Station in the city of Nara on July 8, 2022. Abe was pronounced dead on July 8, the hospital treating him confirmed, after he was shot at a campaign event in the city of Nara.
(AFP/Asahi Simbun)
T
he man who fatally shot former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has told police that he initially planned to attack a leader of a religious group, investigative sources said Saturday.
Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, has also said he had a grudge against a "specific organization" -- possibly the religious group -- that he believed was linked to Abe, according to the police.
Abe died Friday after being shot from behind during a stump speech near a train station in the western prefecture of Nara. Yamagami was arrested at the scene where he was wielding a homemade gun.
Yamagami has denied he committed the crime because he was opposed to Abe's political belief, according to the police.
The police searched his home Friday, finding items that are believed to be explosives and homemade guns, they said.
Yamagami, now unemployed, was working at a manufacturer in the Kansai region from around the autumn of 2020, but he quit in May this year, according to a staffing agency employee. He was previously a member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force for about three years through August 2005.
On Saturday morning, a car carrying the body of Abe left the hospital in Nara where his autopsy was conducted. His wife Akie was in the car and the body is expected to arrive in Tokyo later in the day.
The autopsy determined that there were two gunshot wounds, on Abe's upper left arm and neck, the police said. There was another wound on the neck but it is unknown how was caused, they said.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had a telephone conversation with US President Joe Biden on Saturday, with Biden expressing his condolences over the death of Abe, Japan's longest-serving leader.
Biden noted the "unwavering confidence in the strength of Japan's democracy" and the two leaders also discussed how Abe's legacy will live on as the two countries continue the important task of defending peace and democracy, according to the White House.
Kishida told reporters after the phone talks that he had conveyed to Biden Japan's willingness to "protect democracy without yielding to violence."
