Who is the 41-year-old arrested for shooting at Japan’s ex-PM Shinzo Abe?

Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe died on Friday after being shot at while campaigning for the upcoming election in the Japanese city of Nara. The 67-year-old leader showed no vital signs after being airlifted to a hospital.

Abe was in a grave condition and doctors were working very hard to save him, sitting Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told the media on Friday. The Nara fire department had earlier said that the 67-year-old leader was in cardiopulmonary arrest. He was seen bleeding before being rushed to the hospital.

Abe was shot at by one of the onlookers who has been taken into custody.

Also read: Political assassinations that shook the world

Here’s what we know about the suspect so far:

Japanese police officials have identified the man who attacked Abe as Tetsuya Yamagami. The 41-year-old is believed to be a resident of Nara and is a former military member who served in the maritime self-defence force – the country’s equivalent of the navy – for three years around 2005.

Yamagami has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder for shooting at Abe, according to reports in the media house NHK. He told the police that he was dissatisfied with Abe and wanted to kill him.

The suspect shot two times and media reports said that Abe was hit in the chest. He was standing behind the politician – about 10 feet away – when he fired the weapon.e

No attempt to escape

An eyewitness told NHK that the shooter did not attempt to flee from the scene. Instead, he put this gun on the ground and stayed put as security personnel apprehended him.

Videos and photographs show the suspect wearing a grey T-shirt and brown trousers, being tackled by security officials.

Earlier reports said that the suspect used a shotgun. However, an expert from the Dainihon Ryoyukai, the Japan hunters’ association, told the Japanese media that the sound of the firing did not match that of the gun.

Photographs taken as the suspect was being apprehended show what looks like an improvised, home-made, or double-barrelled shotgun, reports BBC.

Gun violence in Japan

The attack has sent shockwaves throughout Japan and the world. Gun violence is very rare in the country and political violence is also extremely rare, according to BBC Tokyo correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes.

Shootings are uncommon in the island nation but not unheard of. There were 10 incidents last year, leaving one person dead and four wounded, according to the National Policy Agency, reports Bloomberg. The capital Tokyo had no cases of gun violence last year.

It is not easy to obtain guns in Japan. For civilians, obtaining weapons – mainly rifles and shotguns for sport or hunting – requires an intensive licensing and background check process. Police are usually armed with handguns, says the report.

The total number of guns held by civilians in Japan was estimated at 310,400 in 2019, or 0.25 per 100 people, the lowest level among the G-7 countries, according to GunPolicy.org, reports Bloomberg.

With inputs from agencies

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