Japan army recruit kills 2, wounds 1 after opening fire on soldiers at training range
- Police said the shooter, an 18-year-old new recruit, was detained on the spot and had been charged with attempted murder
- He opened fire on his fellow troops during a live-bullet exercise in Gifu prefecture as part of new personnel training, Japan’s military said
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“During a live-bullet exercise as part of new personnel training, one Self-Defence Forces candidate fired at three personnel,” the Ground Self-Defence Force (GSDF), Japan’s army, said in a statement.
The shooter was an 18-year-old SDF candidate who joined the military in April, GSDF chief of staff Yasunori Morishita told reporters, adding he was detained on the spot by other soldiers.
“This kind of incident is absolutely unforgivable for an organisation tasked with handling weapons, and I take it very seriously,” Morishita said.
He said the three victims had been tasked with training new recruits, including the attacker, at the range, without further elaborating on their relations.
The suspect, whose identity is being withheld for now, has been charged with the attempted murder of a 25-year-old soldier, a local police spokesman said, declining to be identified.
The cadet “fired a rifle at the victim with the intent to kill”, the spokesman said.
National broadcaster NHK reported the casualties were a man in his fifties and two other men in their twenties.
Details of the casualties’ identities have yet to be officially confirmed.
Aerial footage broadcast by the station showed military and civilians gathered around an emergency vehicle and police blocking nearby roads. Some appeared to be investigators, wearing covers over their shoes and hair.
A local resident told NHK he saw several emergency vehicles rushing to the area at around 9:30am local time but had not heard anything before that.
Morishita said as far as he is aware, gun violence by GSDF personnel that resulted in injuries or fatalities last took place in 1984 at a camp in Yamaguchi.
The training range near Gifu is administered by the region’s Camp Moriyama and is a covered facility of more than 65,000 square metres.
Gun possession tightly controlled in Japan, where violent crime is rare.
But several high-profile incidents have rattled the country over the last year.
The accused assassin, Tetsuya Yamagami, was due to make his first appearance in court this week, but the session was cancelled after a package sent to the facility set off a metal detector.
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It was later found to contain no explosives, but rather a petition signed by thousands calling for a lenient sentence for Yamagami.
He has garnered surprise sympathy from some quarters over the effect his mother’s devotion to the Unification Church had on his family and childhood.
Thousands of police were deployed to secure the gathering, which passed without a security incident.
The man killed four people, including two police officers, before he was detained. He is reportedly the son of the speaker of the local city assembly.
