19 Killed in Knife Attack on Handicapped Center in Japan
MASSACRE
Country’s worst mass murder since WWII.
Issei Kato/Reuters
At least 19 people are dead following a knife attack on a center for people with disabilities in Japan early Tuesday. At least 25 other people were injured in the half-hour-long killing spree at the Tsukui Yamayuri-en center in Sagamihara, just outside Tokyo. NHK, Japan’s national broadcaster, reported the suspect broke into the facility around 2:30 a.m. and surrendered to police around 3 a.m. The 26-year-old man is said to have confessed and told police he used to work at the facility. NHK reports he broke into the building through a window, shouting “All the handicapped should disappear!” The attack is the deadliest act of mass murder in Japan since the end of World War II, exceeding the death toll of the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway that killed 12 people.