Rooftop drama unfolds as police special investigation team marksmen move in.
On April 16, a six and a half hour rooftop drama unfolded in Inazawa City, Aichi Prefecture, where a knife-wielding man sat on the roof of his apartment building, along with a female “hostage” assumed to be his lover, as he attempted to avoid arrest for theft.
Netizens have been less that complimentary about this latter day “Bonnie and Clyde”, with many suggesting the police marksmen should have shot to kill.
From Yahoo! Japan:
Man With Knife On Roof For 6 1/2 Hours, Escapes With Woman, Arrested — Aichi Prefecture
At around 2pm on April 16, suspect Matsumoto Shinsaku (34), employment unknown, escaped onto the roof of a two-floor apartment building in Kozawa, Inazawa City, Aichi Prefecture, when a prefectural police investigator attempted to arrest him for theft. Matsumoto sat on the roof holding a knife, but the prefectural police first division special investigation team [deals with murder, rape, theft etc.] broke into the building at around 8:40pm, and arrested Matsumoto under suspicion of violating the law controlling possession of firearms and knives. The woman was also arrested at the scene for helping a suspect to avoid arrest.
According to prefectural police, when Matsumoto was captured, an investigator fired three shots from a handgun because Matsumoto had stabbed the woman with the knife. The first two shots were fired into the air as a warning, while the third was aimed and fired at Matsumoto’s leg. Matsumoto was injured and taken to hospital temporarily, however the injury was not gun-related.
Comments from Yahoo! Japan:
huo*oi*aho（huo…）さん:
So when the weather gets warmer the weirdos come out, huh? Please arrest them quickly.
(^^;)(;^^)（uge…）さん:
From what I saw from the video, the hostage didn’t seem like a normal person either (they wouldn’t have clothes like that, would they?)
au*ses**12（pur…）さん:
He’s doing drugs. I bet he had tattoos, too. [In Japan having tattoos means that you are associated with the yakuza]
aid*t*p（aid…）さん:
If they’d left him there he’d come down.
嫁はロシアから来ました：）（the…）さん:
There seem to be a lot of these barricaded suspects in Aichi!
保守濁流（vvv…）さん:
The woman isn’t his friend. They live together. And at any rate they’re both junkies. The sniper should have shot ’em dead.
あかさたな（gpm…）さん:
Even if they catch him it’s a waste of tax money. Shoot the bastard down.
龍馬（tat…）さん:
It should be alright for the police to shoot to kill when a hostage is in a dangerous situation. And after all, the crime was in progress.
hir*ka*aiso*（hir…）さん:
Stupid fucker. If you’re on the roof there’s nowhere you can run. This guy’s brains are smaller than an animal’s w
yat*i*mi*（yat…）さん:
Not Aichi again…
ノリ様（nor…）さん:
So that woman who was with him, was she really a hostage? Whether she’s just living with him or is his wife, she’s also got the same kind of yankee fashion! And it didn’t look like he was threatening her either…Anyway, if they’d just shot the guy the whole thing would have been solved immediately. Aichi police are pathetic too, unable to detain the criminal and letting him escape and take a hostage (grrr)
leo**0116（leo…）さん:
What the hell are the police doing, they’re only making the nearby residents anxious. Disgraceful.
ソボロ取り逃げ（jhh…）さん:
Both the man and the woman look like twats.
mar*uh*na（mar…）さん:
It looks like he was in this woman’s room, but I doubt she’s a decent woman either.
さわわわわわ（saw…）さん:
From now on in our society, I think it’s fine to shoot vicious criminals on the spot. It’s meaningless to put people like this in prison, and give them a life where they’re guaranteed three meals a day on taxpayers’ money. Having said that, it’s also a nuisance to release them immediately and then have them take further victims. It’s best to just get rid of vicious criminals there and then!
t_s*a*ion_*h*（t_s…）さん:
Come on, she’s hardly a “hostage” is she? ww. What the hell is the guy doing, or for that matter, the woman? ww
まぼ（pab…）さん:
How about just waiting until the woman wanted to go to the toilet? If a girl needs to pee, what’s she gonna do?
ma_*o_t**2009（ma_…）さん:
What the hell are they doing～？ I mean, they say that smoke and idiots tend to rise to the tops, but…
フランク.ライカールト（son…）さん:
I mean, those two look pretty friendly…rather than it being a hostage situation, isn’t it a joint crime!?
キンタロス（crs…）さん:
Give an order for the SAT team to move in, and issue a kill order!
