Elderly Woman Stabbed to Death in Tokyo’s Machida

Tokyo, Oct. 1 (Jiji Press)–A 76-year-old woman was stabbed at an apartment in Machida, Tokyo, on Tuesday evening and died shortly after being transported to hospital. Officers from Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department arrested Kota Kuwano, a 40-year-old man from Machida, who was near the site of the incident, on suspicion of attempting to kill the woman. The police will investigate the case in detail by changing his charge to murder. In the incident, which occurred around 7:10 p.m. Tuesday, the victim, Chizuko Akie, a resident of the apartment, was stabbed over 10 times, mainly in the upper body, according to the MPD’s Machida Police Station. The suspect, whose occupation is unknown, told the police: “I’m tired of my current life. I thought I’d kill anyone.” Akie and Kuwano were apparently not acquainted with each other. “I was walking aimlessly, looking for someone who seemed easy to attack. I thought she (Akie) wouldn’t fight back,” Kuwano said. According to the police, a relative of Akie, who was living with the victim at the apartment, went outside after hearing a scream and found her stabbed and lying on her back near outside stairs of the apartment. The relative then made an emergency call to police to report the incident. A kitchen knife with a 17-centimeter blade that is believed to have been used in the attack was seized by the police. A security camera installed at the apartment captured Kuwano following Akie, who returned from shopping, toward the outdoor stairs. The site of the incident is in a residential area and about 600 meters northeast of Odakyu Electric Railway Co.’s Machida Station. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]