Arson suspect reportedly had grudge
TOKYO — Police on Friday were investigating at the blackened, gutted building in Kyoto where a man raging about theft set a fire that killed 33 people in a beloved animation studio, crushing the hearts of comic fans in Japan and beyond. Some were questioning why mass killings like this are now repeated in the country.
Witness accounts and reports suggested the man had a grudge against Kyoto Animation, but police have said only that suspect Shinji Aoba, 41 — who is hospitalized because of severe burns and unable to talk — is from near Tokyo and did not work for the studio.
Japanese broadcaster NHK and other media, quoting an unnamed source, said Aoba spent three and half years in prison for robbing a convenience store in 2012 and lived on government support.
The man told police that he set the fire because he thought “( Kyoto Animation) stole novels,” according to Japanese media.
The company founded in 1981 and better known as KyoAni made a mega- hit anime series about high school girls and trained aspirants to the craft.
The shocking attack left another 35 people injured, some critically. It drew an outpouring of grief for the dead and injured, most of them workers at the studio.
Kyoto prefectural police chief Hideto Ueda solemnly laid flowers at the site, now a charcoal shell, vowing to find motives behind the attack, which he described as “unprecedented and unforgivable.”
While shooting deaths are rare in Japan, the country has had a series of high- profile killings in recent years. Less than two months ago, a man described as a social recluse stabbed a number of private school children at a bus stop outside Tokyo, killing two people and wounding 17 before killing himself. In 2016, a former employee at a home for the disabled allegedly killed 19 people and injured more than 20.
About 70 people were working inside the three- story Kyoto Animation No. 1 studio in southern Kyoto, Japan’s ancient capital, on Thursday at the time of the attack.
The arsonist arrived carrying two containers of flammable liquid. He shouted, “You die!” as he entered the studio’s unlocked front door, dumped the liquid using a bucket and set it afire with a lighter, police said, quoting witnesses. A Kyoto police official declined to speculate how Aoba prepared the attack, saying he wanted the man to explain himself, as well as his motives.
The blaze blocked the front door and quickly engulfed the workspace, rising up the stairs to the third floor, sending panicked employees fleeing. Some were able to escape by crawling out of windows; many tried but failed to escape to the roof, fire officials said. Most of the victims are believed to have died of carbon monoxide poisoning, experts say.
The suspect fled but was chased by studio employees who eventually caught him. “They are always stealing. It’s their fault,” he told policemen bending over and asking him why he set the fire, according to a witness.