26-year-old Japanese man who murdered 19 people at a centre for the
mentally disabled grinned at news cameras on Wednesday before being
questioned.
Police searched the home of Satoshi Uematsu, , who reportedly said he
wanted all disabled people to "disappear", after the knife rampage that left his
victims in pools of blood, including some who were stabbed in the
neck.
With a blue jacket draped over his head, Satoshi Uematsu was escorted out
of a police station into a waiting van before a crowd of flashing cameras.
Inside the vehicle with the jacket removed, he smiled broadly in footage
broadcast on morning news shows.
Uematsu broke into Tsukui Yamayuri-en centre in the city of Sagamihara
outside Tokyo in the early hours of Tuesday. He reportedly tied up two
caregivers before stabbing residents using a total of five knives - leaving a
total of 26 people injured, 13 of them severely. He quickly turned himself in at
a police station, carrying bloodied knives and admitted to the crime. Uematsu
reportedly also said:
"The disabled should all disappear."
Questions were being asked about why he had been allowed to leave the
hospital where he was admitted in February for mental evaluation following his
explicit threats. In a sign that the care centre feared its former employee,
public broadcaster NHK - citing Kanagawa prefectural officials - said the
facility in April set up 16 security cameras to watch out for him after he was
discharged from the hospital.
An official at the Tsukui police station where Uematsu was held after the
attack declined to comment on the investigation, only confirming that he was
being transported to prosecutors for questioning. Local media said Uematsu has
told police that he wants to apologise to bereaved families about the sudden
loss of their loved ones, though he still justified what he did.
"I saved those with multiple disabilities," he told police, according to
private broadcaster TV Asahi which cited investigative sources.
Security camera footage taken near the centre showed a vehicle arriving
there shortly before the attack began. The driver opened the boot to remove
objects before walking toward the facility. At around 2:50 am, shortly after
an emergency call was made to police from the centre, the footage shows the
driver dashing back to the vehicle, carrying a large bag.
Uematsu left his job at the care home and was forcibly hospitalised in
February after telling colleagues he intended to kill disabled people at the
centre. But he was discharged 12 days later when a
doctor deemed he was not a threat.
He had previously delivered a letter to the speaker of the lower house of
parliament in which he threatened to kill hundreds of disabled people, outlining
a broad plan for night-time attacks against Tsukui Yamayuri-en and another
facility. In the rambling letter he presented a vision of a society in which the
seriously handicapped could be euthanised with the approval of family members
since "handicapped people only create unhappiness".
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