“A Knife in His Left Hand, a Golf Club in His Right”: The Man Who Rammed His Car Into a Convenience Store… His “Reputation” in the Neighborhood Where He Set His Home on Fire

“Call the police!”

After ramming his car into the convenience store, the 45-year-old man—holding a 15-centimeter kitchen knife in his left hand and a golf club in his right—reportedly stormed through the store shouting these words.

“Around 12:10 a.m. on July 20, a clerk at a convenience store in Kuzawa, Chuo Ward, Sagamihara City, called 110 to report, ‘A car crashed into the store, and the man who was driving is holding a kitchen knife.’ Police officers who rushed to the scene discovered suspect Kyohei Shibuya (45), holding a kitchen knife, in the convenience store’s parking lot.“They tried to persuade him to put down the knife, but when he approached them, a police officer in his 20s fired a warning shot into the air. Suspect Shibuya was subsequently subdued and arrested on the spot on suspicion of violating the Firearms and Swords Control Law,” said a reporter from the crime desk of a national newspaper.

At the time of the incident, there was one clerk and two customers inside the store; when the car plowed into the store, a male high school student (15) among the customers sustained minor injuries to his arm and other parts of his body.

Suspect Shibuya lived in an apartment building across from this convenience store. A man in his 50s who lives in the same building recalled the day of the incident as follows:

“I was awakened in the middle of the night by a loud ‘bang’ and angry shouts. Thinking it might be young people making a racket, I looked outside and saw two police officers pointing their guns at a man and shouting, ‘Drop it!’The man was carrying a long, silver object over his shoulder; I thought it was a Japanese sword, but according to news reports, it seems it was actually a golf club. Before long, two or three patrol cars arrived, and police officers began gathering in droves, so I thought, ‘He’s going to be arrested right away.’”

However, that wasn’t the end of it that day. Suspect Shibuya claimed, “I set my apartment on fire.” The man in his 50s mentioned earlier continued:

“Around 2:00 a.m., we were told over a loudspeaker from outside, ‘The apartment is on fire, so please evacuate immediately,’ and we were told to wait in the parking lot of the supermarket across the street. Firefighters broke through the partition from the balcony of the neighboring apartment and entered (Shibuya’s) room.The moment they broke the window, I saw smoke billow out. However, they didn’t spray any water or anything like that.
What was strange was that even though every apartment had a fire alarm—and they’d just been inspected in May—none of them went off.”

In fact, some residents said they were asleep and didn’t notice the fire, adding , “I found out about it the next day on the news.”

The “Unusual Occurrence” That Took Place on the Morning of the Incident

What kind of person was Suspect Shibuya?

When asked, residents of the same apartment building described him as “a quiet person who moved in about a year ago,” adding that he didn’t leave a particularly unusual impression. However, a man living in the apartment directly above him prefaced his story by saying, “I’m not sure if it was Suspect Shibuya or not…,” and then shared the following account.

“Around January or February of this year, on a cold winter night, the intercom suddenly rang. When I asked who it was, they wouldn’t give their name. Then, out of the blue, they said, ‘There are several of you out on the balcony peeking into my place, aren’t there?’

When I asked, ‘What do you mean?’ he wouldn’t give a proper answer. He just kept saying, ‘I know you’re all out on the balcony peeking in and making a racket.’ I thought he sounded dangerous, so I didn’t open the door.

Come to think of it, around September of last year, the police came by and said, ‘We received a report about loud noise, so we’d like to talk to you.’ That might have been the apartment below mine (Suspect Shibuya) as well.”

She also mentioned that something had caught her attention on the morning of the incident.

“I heard a loud ‘thud, thud’ sound from below, as if someone were banging hard on the ceiling. Since it was right above the kitchen, I wondered if they were trying to break the fire alarm. On the day of the fire, the fire alarm didn’t go off.”

On July 21, Suspect Shibuya was transferred to the prosecutor’s office. Appearing at the Hadano Police Station’s transfer gate around 8:00 a.m., he briefly glared at the cameras but immediately lowered his head and boarded the transport vehicle, blinking repeatedly.

From that appearance, it was impossible to discern any of the savagery one might expect from someone who threatens others with a kitchen knife or a golf club.

Why did Suspect Shibuya resort to such a heinous act? As the investigation progresses, the answer will surely become clear.