Knife-Wielding Man Killed 19 Disabled Patients at Care Centre in Japan

Sagamihara: A 26-year-old former employee of a disability center near Tokyo has killed 19 disabled people with knife, cementing it as the worst mass killing of the country in the last few decades.

Satoshi Uematsu, who suddenly entered into the care giving centre and killed the 19 in their sleep, leaving 25 others wounded due to the attack. The centre, Tsukui Yamayuri-En facility in Sagamihara town is located about 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Tokyo. Following the attack, Uematsu handed himself to the police later. He was also carrying a bag full of knives and other sharp-edged weapons.

Reports are that Uematsu wrote a letter in February saying that ‘he could obliterate 470 disabled people.’ “My goal is a world in which the severely disabled can be euthanized, with their guardians’ consent, if they are unable to live at home and be active in society,” he wrote in the letter, which were produced to the speaker of the lower house of parliament, following the mass killing.

According to the investigating police officers, Uematsu had killed nine women and 10 men, aged between 18 and 70. Earlier this year, Uematsu was admitted to a hospital after he said that he want to kill disabled people. He was released on March 2 from the hospital.

Following the attack, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said: “This is a very heart-wrenching and shocking incident in which many innocent people became victims.”