Oct. 14 (UPI) — A Japanese court on Tuesday gave the death penalty to a 34-year-old man who killed four people, including two police officers.
Masanori Aoki was sentenced to death for fatally stabbing two women who had been out for a walk in Nagano prefecture in 2023. After killing the two women, Aoki then shot and killed two police officers who arrived at the scene in response to the attack, Kyodo News reported.
It was the first time in more than 30 years multiple police officers had been killed by gun violence in Japan, the BBC reported.
“It was an atrocious crime in which four precious lives were taken based on a strong intent to kill,” presiding Judge Masashi Sakata said.
Aoki’s attorneys had called for a sentence of life in prison because their client had delusional disorder and schizophrenia and was thus unable to tell right from wrong. Prosecutors called for the death penalty, saying Aoki killed the two women — Yasuko Takeuchi and Yukie Murakami — and two police officers — Takuo Ikeuchi and Yoshiki Tamai — in a fit of rage.
Aoki allegedly killed the two women, who were his neighbors, because he believed they were talking negatively about him.
He then used a firearm called a “half-rifle” to shoot the police officers. After the murders, authorities implemented laws to make it more difficult to own half-rifles.
AloJapan.com