Behind the Scenes of the Fujimino City Robbery Case: How a 66-Year-Old Suspect Turned Deadly
He shot and killed his doctor next to his mother's corpse. He shot and killed his doctor next to his mother's corpse, and held the doctor hostage for 11 hours.
‘Secure, secure. Maruhi secured at the scene.”
The raiding party of the Saitama Prefectural Police rushed in just before 8:00 a.m. this morning as soon as they broke the lock on the front door and detonated a flashbang. The investigators were filled with a sense of relief when the sound of the police radio rang out, but what they found out soon after was the sad ending.
Margai (the victim) is unresponsive. He’s in cardiopulmonary arrest.
The man collapsed on his back in the Japanese-style room, but he never woke up. The incident began about 11 hours before the killer was captured.
I’ve been shot. Two other people are injured. I’m running away too.
The call to the local fire department in Fujimino City, Saitama Prefecture, just after 9:00 p.m. last night, was filled with tension. The man who reported the incident, a physical therapist working at a nearby clinic, had escaped on his own from the house where the attack took place, but was struck in the chest area and was covered in blood as he called for help.
Two of the three were taken to the hospital, but Junichi Suzuki, 44, was the only one taken hostage, although police and the perpetrators said he was safe. Saitama Prefectural Police
The Saitama Prefectural Police raided a private house at around 8:00 this morning and arrested Hiroshi Watanabe, 66, who was hiding in a crevice beside a bed in a Japanese-style room, but the hostage, Dr. Suzuki, had been shot in the chest with a shotgun and was already dead. The body of Watanabe’s mother was also found on the bed, next to the shotgun that was used to kill him.
The two suspects had been living together since around 2016, with Watanabe caring for his mother. Dr. Suzuki, the doctor who took her hostage, was her mother’s doctor and was providing her with home care. Neighborhood residents said that Watanabe’s mother, whom he had been caring for for many years, was in a rough state after her death.
The mother was bedridden, and Mr. Watanabe had been taking care of her all by himself. I don’t know why the blame was directed at her doctor, but I heard that they had a problem over a medical examination before she died.
According to the investigators, Dr. Suzuki had been the primary care physician for Watanabe’s mother for six years, but recently she had been unable to eat due to her illness, and he and Watanabe had a disagreement over the treatment policy.
Watanabe had been taking care of her mother in accordance with Dr. Suzuki’s treatment policy, but when her mother died, she seemed to resent Dr. Suzuki, saying that she had listened to his advice and had failed. This is believed to have been his motive.
Dr. Suzuki has been making efforts to treat patients infected with the new corona at home, and his activities have been covered by the media. The number of patients in Saitama Prefecture has been increasing rapidly due to the sixth wave, and it is possible that patients who had been treated well in the past may not have been treated as well as usual.
While holed up in the house, Watanabe told investigators that he had a problem with his mother’s medical treatment, but he is currently keeping quiet during the interrogation.
The Saitama Prefectural Police will be questioning the other two injured men in detail, but one of the men is in a critical condition and unconscious, and the other man, who is believed to be slightly injured, is too upset to talk to them.
The Saitama Prefectural Police believe that the incident was planned, as the suspect had prepared a shotgun in advance, and they are investigating in detail what kind of trouble the suspect had with the doctor and the clinic.
Photo： Shinji Hasuo
