Watarai, Mie Pref., Oct. 26 (Jiji Press)–A father of a woman who was killed after being struck by a man who jumped from an apartment building in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, is gathering signatures calling for the man to be charged with murder on the grounds that he acted with conditional intent. Kenji Inaba’s daughter, Houra, then 23, was walking with a friend on a street in Nagoya’s Naka Ward around 1 a.m. on July 19 when she was struck by the man, who had jumped from the 11th floor of an apartment building. She died of hemorrhagic shock as a result of the collision. The 29-year-old man survived the fall and was arrested by Aichi prefectural police in late August on suspicion of causing death through gross negligence. He was subsequently referred to prosecutors and is currently undergoing psychiatric evaluation while in detention. The 50-year-old father from the town of Watarai in neighboring Mie Prefecture argued that the man must have been aware that jumping from the building could endanger others. “I will not let my daughter’s death be dismissed as an unfortunate accident,” he said. The father was contacted about an hour and a half after the incident and rushed by car to the hospital where he found his daughter in the operating room. “It honestly didn’t make any sense,” he said, recalling the day. Although he repeatedly held her hand and spoke to her, saying “Your dad and your sister are here,” and “It must have hurt,” Houra never regained consciousness. The father is not convinced that the collision should be treated merely as an accident. He said visiting the scene reminded him of the pain of losing his daughter. Nonetheless, he returned to the location late at night on multiple occasions and monitored pedestrian traffic to observe the situation around the time of the incident. Through his observations, he confirmed that the area was a well-lit sidewalk near a downtown entertainment district and counted about 300 pedestrians over a period of one hour and 45 minutes. The father met the suspect three times at the police station where he was being detained. When asked whether he had jumped knowing there was a possibility he could strike and kill someone below, the man replied, “Yes,” according to the father, who therefore argues that the man acted with conditional intent. On the online petition website Change.org, more than 46,000 signatures have been collected. They are scheduled to be submitted to the Nagoya District Public Prosecutors Office on Wednesday, along with a written statement demanding that the suspect be prosecuted for murder. “My daughter shouldn’t just become a sacrifice for selfish despair,” the father said in a message posted with the petition. “As a parent, the last job I can do for the future of my late daughter is to sound the alarm to prevent similar tragedies.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
