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The man arrested for the murder of Shinzo Abe has said that the former Japanese leader ran a religious cult that brought about the financial ruin of his mother, Reuters writes, and that he had spent months planning the attack with the homemade weapon.
Tetsuya Yamagami, a 41-year-old ex-soldier, was identified by police as the suspect who approached the former Japanese prime minister from behind and opened fire in the videotaped attack.
The incident shocked the country where gun violence is considered rare.
The lanky, bespectacled and tousled-haired killer is seen in the footage coming up behind Abe before firing the bullets from his 40-cm-long barreled gun, which he had wrapped in black insulation. He was stopped by the police at the scene.
Yamagami, who neighbors said was a loner, believed Abe was the head of a religious cult to which his mother had made a “huge financial donation,” local Kyodo news agency reported, citing investigative sources.
He later told the police that his mother went bankrupt because of the donation to the organization, according to the Yomiuri network.
“My mother was very involved in this religious group and I despised that,” the suspect was quoted as saying by the Kyodo news agency. Police declined to comment on details about Yamagami’s motivation or planning for the killing.
The media did not mention the group or religious cult in question.
Yamagami had meanwhile created his own weapon with parts bought online, and waiting for the occasion for Abe’s campaign events.
He is believed to have considered a bomb attack before choosing the firearm, local network NHK wrote.
Yamagami lived on the eighth floor of an apartment building, where there is a large bar on the ground floor where he preferred to spend most of his time.
A 69-year-old neighbor who lives one floor below him said she saw him three days before the murder.
“I greeted him or he never answered. He just looked down and looked nervous, he was like an invisible man, it seemed that something was bothering him,” Nakayama told Reuters.
A Vietnamese woman living on Yamagami’s floor who gave her name as Mai said he did not mix with others. “I saw him several times, I greeted him with my head in the elevator, but he didn’t say anything.”
Tetsuya Yamagami reportedly served in the Japanese navy from 2002 to 2005, the navy reported.
Yamagami was stationed at Sasebo, a major artillery base in the northwest of the country. He then served on a training ship in Hiroshima, according to reports.
Investigations continue.
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