Shocking Witness Accounts Emerge Regarding the Abnormal Adachi Hit-and-Run Suspect

Third arrest for murder and homicide

“After fleeing from a police car, I passed through three intersections before hitting people, and all the traffic lights were green. I was able to drive calmly.”

In a case in which two people were killed and 12 others were injured to varying degrees, the man who was arrested reportedly admitted to hitting people but made the above statement.

“On January 5, the Metropolitan Police Department’s Traffic Investigation Division rearrested suspect Yosuke Yokoo (37) on suspicion of murder, attempted murder, and violations of the Road Traffic Act (hit-and-run), alleging that he ran over and killed Kenji Sugimoto (81), attempted to run over and kill five others, and then fled the scene.

During previous questioning, Yokoo stated, ‘Before hitting them, I could see a male pedestrian, and I knew that if I plowed into him at 60 km/h, he might die.’ Based on this statement, investigators determined that so-called dolus eventualis (conditional intent) was established and decided to indict him for murder,” said a reporter from the social affairs desk of a national newspaper.

This is the third time Yokoo has been arrested. It is the first time he has faced suspicions of murder and attempted murder. Previously, on the day of the incident, November 24, he was arrested on suspicion of theft for stealing a car from a dealership. On December 15, he was arrested a second time on suspicion of violating the Act on Punishment of Acts Inflicting Death or Injury by Driving a Motor Vehicle (dangerous driving causing death) and the Road Traffic Act (hit-and-run) for running over and killing a 28-year-old Filipino national, office worker Gladys Grace Rotacio Testado, who was crossing at a crosswalk, and fleeing without providing aid or reporting to the police.

The tragic incident occurred at around 12:30 p.m. on November 24.

At 10:20 a.m. that day, Yokoo visited a car dealership in Adachi Ward that he had frequented many times before. A Toyota Crown that had caught his eye previously was parked in the rear lot. It was a pre-sale vehicle, unlocked, with a smart key in the driver’s seat pocket, and the engine could be started by pressing the engine button.

Saying, “I wanted to test-drive it, but I didn’t intend to buy it and couldn’t bring myself to tell the staff,” Yokoo got into the Crown and drove off about two minutes after entering the store. He reportedly continued driving for about two hours through areas such as Soka City in Saitama Prefecture, saying he “wanted to go toward the mountains where the water is clean.”

It accelerated before striking the victim

Then, at around 12:30 p.m., a patrol car from the Nishiarai Police Station, which had been investigating after receiving a report of the theft, spotted the Crown. When officers ordered it to stop, suspect Yokoo did not comply; instead, he began to drive recklessly.

The previously mentioned social affairs reporter explains:

“About one minute after he began driving recklessly, the first accident occurred. Yokoo drove into a crosswalk where more than a dozen pedestrians had just started to cross and struck Ms. Testado. From the impact, Ms. Testado was thrown forward and hit a car about 15 meters away. The suspect’s vehicle is believed to have accelerated just before the collision.

After that, the car left the roadway and entered the sidewalk. After hitting multiple people, it crashed into a guardrail along the side of the road and came to a stop. At that time, Mr. Sugimoto was thrown about 20 meters; the cause of death was brain damage caused by a strong impact to the head. In addition, three other people reportedly suffered serious injuries such as fractured pelvises and broken legs. Yokoo then abandoned the Crown and fled the scene.

Yokoo is said to have stated, ‘I hit people while fleeing from the patrol car,’ and ‘I ran because I didn’t want to be caught.’”

When he was arrested immediately after the incident, the Metropolitan Police Department did not disclose Yokoo’s name, saying that it was necessary to carefully determine whether criminal responsibility could be established. However, since conversations with police officers during questioning proceeded without issue, the police switched to releasing his real name from December 15 onward.

Yokoo lived with his parents in a detached house located at the very end of a dead-end alley in a quiet residential neighborhood about a 30-minute walk from the nearest station in Adachi Ward—an alley so narrow that only a single car could barely enter.

Immediately after the incident, Yokoo’s mother spoke to the media, revealing that he had been suffering from schizophrenia for several years, and that he had a driver’s license, but as far as I know, he had never caused an accident before. She also offered words of apology to the victims.

A man living nearby described the situation right after the incident as follows:

“I found out about the accident right away from the news. Then by around 2 p.m., patrol cars and unmarked police vehicles had already come down this road (the dead-end alley), and there were about 20 detectives. It seemed the suspect had barricaded himself inside his home.”

The man said that while he was speaking with detectives, Yokoo’s mother happened to walk by. He went on to say that he heard unbelievable words from her at that moment.

“She was talking with neighbors and said, ‘My son, you see, caused an accident.’ We’d all seen the news and knew something terrible had happened. Hearing her say ‘caused an accident’ so lightly really shocked me—it wasn’t something that could be brushed off like that.”

Another man in his 70s who lives nearby said, “About ten households in this area moved here around the same time about 30 years ago. But that house over there (Yokoo’s family home) hardly had any interaction with the neighborhood,” and recalled the following:

“The son of that house (Yokoo) would sometimes cause trouble around here. When I saw him, he was spraying water with his home’s hose onto a car parked at a neighboring house. The car’s owner got angry and stormed over, saying, ‘Is your son on some kind of drugs?’ The mother then explained that he was ‘seeing a psychiatrist.’”

As for how Yokoo’s relatives feel about the police switching to releasing his real name after December 15, no response was obtained. The doorbell at the family home was rung several times, but although the lights were on inside, no one came to the door.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office plans to place Yokoo under psychiatric evaluation detention starting on the 19th of this month in order to assess his criminal responsibility at the time of the incident.

More than a month has passed since the incident, but flowers and drinks were still being laid at the scene.

 

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