According to reports, the 41-year-old suspect in the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that he was unhappy with his ex-leader and wanted him dead. However, he did not want to kill him because of his political beliefs.
Tetsuya Yamagami hails from Nara, where Abe, 67, was shot while giving a speech. At the moment, she is facing an attempted murder charge. According to NHK, the Japanese broadcaster, Tetsuya Yamagami is currently facing an attempted murder charge. However, local police are likely to raise the charge to murder since Shinzo Abe died.
“Former Prime Minister Abe was giving an ordinary speech, but a man appeared from behind. Although the sound was loud, the person didn’t fall. Witnesses to the incident told NHK that former Prime Minister Abe fell at the second shot”. “The suspect didn’t appear to run, he stayed there, and the gun wasn’t there.”
The news of the killing shocked people all over the globe, including Japan, which has notoriously strict gun ownership laws.
Yamagami, according to police, was answering calmly questions. He also admitted to attacking Abe. According to investigators, he told them he had planned to kill Abe because he believed rumors that the former leader had connections to an organization that police didn’t identify.
NHK spoke with officials from the Ministry of Defense who said that the gun used in Abe’s assassination was homemade. Yamagami spent three years in Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force, between 2002 and 2005.
“Abe’s assailant used a weapon that made a sound similar to an explosion. White smoke rose into the atmosphere after the weapon was discharged.” According to a Kyodo News report, Friday’s incident was characterized by a gunpowder-like odor. One of their reporters on the scene said that the weapon looked like it had been secured with duct tape.
According to NHK, Abe was struck around two minutes and twenty seconds into his speech.
According to the broadcaster, the video taken prior to the shooting shows Yamagami looking around while standing close to a footpath behind Abe.
The station said that he then took something from a bag and walked slowly towards Abe before raising his gun and opening fire.
Police found explosives in Yamagami’s Nara apartment, NHK reported.
The police also confiscated similar weapons from the suspect and his computer.