Developing | ‘It’s better the disabled disappear’: 19 people stabbed to death at Japanese care facility by ‘euthanasia advocate’
Attacker who used to work at facility surrenders to police while carrying a bag full of bloodstained knives
In Japan’s worst mass killing in decades, 19 disabled people were stabbed to death in their sleep and 25 people were wounded by a knife-wielding man at a facility for the disabled in Japan early on Tuesday.
Police in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, about 40km southwest of Tokyo, have arrested Satoshi Uematsu, a 26-year-old former employee at the facility and reported euthanasia advocate, who drove to a police station to turn himself in soon after the attack.
Uematsu had a bag full of knives and other edged tools, some bloodstained, when he surrendered, police said.
“This is a very heart-wrenching and shocking incident in which many innocent people became victims,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference in Tokyo.
Officers said staff called police at 2.30am local time with reports of a man armed with a knife on the grounds of the Tsukui Yamayuri-En facility.
