17 wounded, 7 dead in stabbing spree in downtown Tokyo

[Skuggi]

Well, well, look what happens when a criminal cant get his hands on a gun. He uses a car and knife.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...e-rampage.html

A man rammed a lorry into shoppers in Tokyo before jumping out of his cab and launching a stabbing frenzy which left at least six people dead.

Twelve others were injured in the attack in the Akihabara district, a popular electronics shopping centre, before the knife-man was arrested.

A police spokesman said the arrested man, named as 25-year-old Tomohiro Kato, told police he had planned the attack.

"The suspect told police that he came to Akihabara to kill people," said Jiro Akaogi.

[paul]

my heart goes out to the victims, but the Japanese authorities really have two options, they can talk to the British for advice about banning all pointy items, or they can come here and I'm sure we could advise them differently.

[WhiteFeather]

Japan needs to become more civilized nation, they need to pass a law that bans ALL knifes and cars.

Because apparently JUST banning guns in Japan didn't work to "do something" to stop the senseless killings.

Sorry to all the victims that were in the victim's disarmament zone, wish their was some citizen that could have taken the psycho out with a pistol to end the killings.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080608/...japan_stabbing

TOKYO - A man who police said "was tired of life" drove into a crowd of pedestrians Sunday and then went on a stabbing rampage in Tokyo's top electronics and video game district, killing seven people and wounding 10, authorities said.

The deadly lunchtime assault paralyzed the Akihabara neighborhood, which is wildly popular among the country's youth. The killings were the latest in a series of grisly knife attacks that have stoked fears of rising crime in Japan.

A 25-year-old man, Tomohiro Kato, was apprehended in the attack, authorities said.

"The suspect told police that he came to Akihabara to kill people," said Jiro Akaogi, a spokesman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. "He said he was tired of life. He said he was sick of everything."

News reports said the man crashed a rented, two-ton truck into pedestrians, then jumped out of the truck and began stabbing the people he'd knocked down before turning on horrified onlookers.

The attacker grunted and roared as he slashed and stabbed at his victims on a street crowded with Sunday shoppers, reports said.

"He was screaming as he was stabbing people at random," a witness told NHK.

A witness told NHK the suspect dropped the knife after police threatened to shoot him. An amateur video filmed by a mobile phone showed policemen overpowering the bespectacled suspect.

Police confirmed seven deaths — six men and one woman — but they could not say whether the victims died from injuries from the truck or were stabbed to death.

At least 17 ambulances rushed to the scene, with TV footage showing rescue workers tending to victims in the street.

Another amateur video taken five minutes after the rampage showed shoppers helping the victims and a man screaming, "Ambulance, Ambulance!" according to NHK.

Akihabara district, known as Electric Town, is wildly popular with Japan's cyber-wise youth.

Once rare, stabbing attacks have become more frequent in Japan in recent years as violent crime has increased.

In March, one person was stabbed to death and at least seven others were hurt by a man who went on a slashing spree with two knives outside a shopping mall in eastern Japan.

In one of the worst attacks, a man with a history of mental illness burst into an elementary school in Japan in 2001 and killed eight children. The killer was executed in 2004.

[WhiteFeather]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080608/...94X2XMm139xg8F

The man jumped on top of a man he had hit with his vehicle and stabbed him with a knife many times," Kyodo quoted a 19-year-old witness as saying. "Walking toward Akihabara Station, he slashed nearby people at random."

The dead were six men aged 19 to 74 and a 21-year-old woman, the news agency said.

The police said a man had been arrested, and television stations showed a slight, blood-splattered 25-year-old being herded into a police car.

Witnesses said the rampage was stopped when a policeman armed with a gun confronted the man, who NHK television said was shouting as he cut down his victims.

The street, usually crowded with tourists and locals seeking cheap gadgets, was cleared by police, who searched for evidence amid pools of blood.

"It's pretty shocking, considering that I come here all the time," a man told NHK.

The rampage came on the seventh anniversary of a massacre at a Japanese primary school, when a knife-wielding janitor and former mental patient killed eight schoolchildren. He was later executed for the killings.

Although Japan has relatively little violent crime, such high-profile cases have raised public concern about violence.

Shooting deaths remain rare in Japan, although there have been some recent cases involving "yakuza" criminal gangs.

[tmg19103]

Stabbed 17 people, killed seven.

"The assault, which occurred on the seventh anniversary of a mass stabbing at a Japanese elementary school, was the latest in a series of knife attacks that have stoked fears of rising violent crime in Japan.

"In March, one person was stabbed to death and at least seven others were hurt by a man who went on a slashing spree with two knives outside a shopping mall in eastern Japan. In January, a 16-year-old boy attacked five people in a shopping area, injuring two of them."

I bet a "knife free zone" would have stopped this. Not. How about a few armed citizens?

Firearms are basically outlawed in Japan yet we still see mass killings by nutjobs.

You will never be able to prevent these crimes by deranged people, and somehow I don't see Japanese lawmakers blaming this on the knife - at least I hope not.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080608/...japan_stabbing

[BenningBoy]

So how does one guy with a knife rack up more fatalities than many "shooting spree" bad guys?

[gunperson003]

So how does one guy with a knife rack up more fatalities than many "shooting spree" bad guys?

bbbahahahahaaaahaaahaahaa.... baaahaaahaaahaaahaahaaa

[BenningBoy]

For just this once, I'm serious. Don't know how many news reports I've seen with 20 to 30 shell casings on a street, the term "assault rifle" bandied about, and it's one innocent dead and one intended target in critical condition. Or the wacko in the mall with a couple of weapons and hundreds of rounds wounding two. But this guy kills seven with a knife, and the antis aren't wondering?

[JoeWilliams]

More gun control would have prevented this horrible crime.

[General Geoff]

For just this once, I'm serious. Don't know how many news reports I've seen with 20 to 30 shell casings on a street, the term "assault rifle" bandied about, and it's one innocent dead and one intended target in critical condition. Or the wacko in the mall with a couple of weapons and hundreds of rounds wounding two. But this guy kills seven with a knife, and the antis aren't wondering?

This guy obviously knows how to use a knife. If a guy who actually knows how to use a rifle decides to go on a shooting spree, the body count could very easily be much higher.