Stabbing Rampage Kills Dozens in Japan
A young man in Japan went on a stabbing rampage Tuesday, killing 19 people and injuring at least 20 more.
Twenty-six-year-old Satoshi Uematsu launched the attack around 2 a.m. on a facility for the mentally disabled. It is the deadliest mass killing Japan has seen in decades.
Security camera footage shows the killer, armed with several knives, driving up in a black car. He smashed a window to break in and set about slashing people to death.
After slaughtering and injuring nearly a third of the facility's 150 patients in about 40 minutes, he calmly turned himself over to authorities.
The assailant reportedly displayed troubling behavior leading up to the attack, including sending a letter to Parliament outlining his bloody plan. All disabled people should be put to death in "a world that allows for mercy killing," he wrote.
Uematsu was prepared to kill 470 disabled people in what he called "a revolution." He outlined his plan on two facilities and said he would turn himself in afterward. He even requested to be judged innocent on the grounds of insanity when he went to court.
"My reasoning is that I may be able to revitalize the world economy and I thought it may be possible to prevent World War III," he rambles on in his letter.
Japanese authorities apologized for not following up on the letter sooner. Several said the deadly spree served as a painful reminder of the importance of early intervention when people exhibit threatening or concerning behavior.
"It highlights the need for an early intervention system in the Japanese mental health system. Someone doesn't get to that state without some symptoms of mental illness," said Michael Gillan Peckitt, a lecturer in clinical philosophy at Osaka University in Japan.
