“My mother donated to a religious organization and went bankrupt”… Closing the construction company
If you fire a homemade gun once, 6 bullets come out… “Purchase parts and gunpowder online”
Tetsuya Yamagami (41), who shot and killed former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (67) during an election campaign, was reported to have stated that he decided to commit the crime following seeing Abe sent a video message to the religion his mother was missing.
The Yomiuri Shimbun reported on the 10th that Yamagami, a former member of the Maritime Self-Defense Forces, mentioned the name of a specific religious group in a police investigation and stated, “My mother is a believer and has donated a large amount to go bankrupt.” reported
Yamagami said that he initially aimed at the leader of the religious group, but when access became difficult, he believed that “Abe spread this religion in Japan” and changed the target of the murder to Abe.
Regarding the reason for Abe’s murder, he said, “It’s not because of a grudge once morest[Abe’s]political creed,” he said.
According to Yomiuri, the group is a religion that originated abroad, not in Japan, and on the Internet there is a video of Abe’s video message sent to an event by a private activist group established by the group’s representatives.
According to the religious group, Yamagami’s mother is registered as a believer in this religion.
A public relations official for this religious group told the Tokyo Shimbun, “It is certain that (Yamagami’s mother) has been a believer for a long time, but she does not know regarding the financial situation.”
According to the Asahi Shimbun, Yamagami’s father ran a construction company, but when Yamagami died suddenly when he was young, his mother took over the company.
Since then, her mother is said to have paid a lot of money to religious organizations while working hard in her religious activities.
It is said that the three children, including Yamagami, called relatives, saying, “There is nothing to eat at home,” perhaps because of the influence of her mother’s large donations.
According to investigative officials, in 2002, the mother was declared bankrupt by the Nara District Court, and in 2009 her construction company also closed.
Yamagami’s relatives told Asahi, “Yamagami must have continued to resent the religious group.”
Regarding the homemade gun used in the crime, Yamagami told the police, “It was a structure that fired six bullets with one shot.”
Several homemade guns were found in his home, and police believe Yamagami had made several guns and chose the one with the highest killing power to commit the crime.
The homemade gun was 40 cm long and 20 cm high, in the form of two metal tubes tied together and fixed with wood and tape.
It was a structure in which 6 bullets were fired from one tube when fired once.
Yamagami fired twice from a distance of 6-7 meters behind Abe, and not only did Abe get hit, but he also found several holes that looked like bullets in the election campaign car parked on the roadside regarding 20 meters in front of Abe.
The police saw the bullet marks as grenade marks, so it seems that the power of the homemade gun was considerable.
The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that Yamagami said, “The gun was made several months ago, and parts and explosives were purchased online.”
On the 8th, Yamagami approached former Prime Minister Abe, who was campaigning for support for a candidate for the LDP’s lower house election in Nara City, Nara Prefecture, and shot and killed him with a gun he had built.
/yunhap news
