Abe killer wielded homemade gun, grudge over mother’s financial ruin:Police

Flowers, bottles of water and a framed photograph of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on July 9, 2022 near the crime scene where he was fatally shot during a political event in Nara, Japan. The incident was one of Japans highest profile acts of political violence since World War Two.

Kosuke Okahara | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The man arrested for Shinzo Abe’s killing believed the former Japanese leader was linked to a religious group he blamed for his mother’s financial ruin and spent months planning the attack with a homemade gun, police told local media on Saturday.

Tetsuya Yamagami, an unemployed 41-year-old, was identified by police as the suspect who approached Japan’s longest-serving prime minister from behind and opened fire, an attack that was captured on video and shocked a nation where gun violence is rare.

Wiry and bespectacled with shaggy hair, the suspect was seen stepping into the road behind Abe, who was standing on a riser at an intersection, before unloading two shots from a 40-cm-long (16-inch) weapon wrapped with black tape. He was tackled by police at the scene.

Yamagami was a loner who did not reply when spoken to, neighbors told Reuters. He believed Abe had promoted a religious group that his mother made a “huge donation” to, Kyodo news agency said, citing investigative sources.

He told police his mother went bankrupt from the donation, the Yomiuri newspaper and other media reported.

“My mother got wrapped up in a religious group and I resented it,”…

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