19 killed in knife rampage in Japan

Attack on center for disabled shocks nation with one of world’s lowest crime rates

SAGAMIHARA, Japan — A former employee of a center for the disabled in a Tokyo suburb broke into the building and killed 19 people with a knife early Tuesday, local officials said.

The suspect, Satoshi Uematsu, 26, went on a rampage at about 2:20 a.m. in Sagamihara, a town an hour west of Tokyo, according to the authorities in the Kanagawa prefecture. Twenty-five people were reported injured, all but one of them seriously.

Just half an hour after the attack, Uematsu turned himself in at a nearby police station and was charged with attempted murder. Additional charges were expected.

The attack was the worst mass killing in Japan in decades. The country has one of the lowest crime rates in the world.

All of the dead, nine men and 10 women, were residents of the center. They ranged in age from 18 to 70 and were found in both buildings on the site.

According to the Kanagawa Prefecture officials, Uematsu entered the building by breaking a first-floor window with a hammer. He was carrying a bag of knives. He later told the police that “all the handicapped should disappear.”

The center, Tsukui Yamayuri-en, which is operated by the prefecture, has 149 long-term residents with mental disabilities. Other patients stay overnight for short periods. Some have physical disabilities as well. It offers services such as meals and baths, as well as arts activities.

NHK, the Japanese public broadcaster, reported that eight staff members and a security guard were on duty at the time of the attack. Some staff members told the police they had been tied up. TV Asahi reported that there were 16 surveillance cameras installed at the center.

Uematsu worked at the center from December 2012 until February, Kanagawa prefecture officials said. It was not clear why he left.

Nippon Television reported that Uematsu sent a letter to the speaker of the lower house of Parliament in February urging legal changes that would allow the severely disabled to be euthanized.

“My aim is a world where people with multiple disabilities who have extreme difficulty living at home or being active in society can be euthanized with the consent of their guardians,” Uematsu wrote, according to the report.

Outside of the police station in Sagamijara, a black car sat in the parking lot, covered in a blue tarp. Local media had reported it was the car Uematsu drove to the station for his confession, broadcasting images of a bloody steering wheel and plastic ties scattered on a seat. Police officers outside the station would not confirm that it was his vehicle.

The back bumper was broken and had an English-language bumper sticker that read: “I’m not driving too slow. You’re speeding.”

Kiyoshi Nakatsuka, 73, the vice chairman of the parents’ group for residents at the center, said his son, in his 40s, was lucky enough to escape the killings, NHK reported. Nakatsuka said many other family members were waiting to hear about their relatives. He had never heard of Uematsu, or of any problems with other employees, he said.

Uematsu lived nearby in a large, cream-colored cement house on a hill with overgrown weeds outside. He had lived with his parents until they moved away, neighbors said. A pile of trash inside the home was visible through one of the windows, and a garden shed next to the house was half-open.