Demolition Work Starts at Sagamihara Care Home after 2016 Massacre

May 7, 2018

Sagamihara, Kanagawa Pref.- Work began Monday to demolish care home buildings in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, where dozens of disabled people were killed and injured in a stabbing rampage in 2016.

The work at the care home, Tsukui Yamayuri-en, started with installing temporary fences for noise pollution prevention and safety purposes.

According to the Kanagawa prefectural government, buildings in which the knife attack took place, including the residential and workshop wings, with a total floor space of some 6,740 square meters will be dismantled by March 2019.

Construction of replacement buildings is scheduled to start in fiscal 2019 beginning in April the same year and end in fiscal 2021. Facilities where no one was killed or injured, such as the administration building and gymnasium, will be used as they are after Tsukui Yamayuri-en reopens.

"I hope the work will be the first step to create a good living environment for users," said Takashi Ono, the 74-year-old father of a resident who was wounded in the attack.

The Yokohama District Public Prosecutors Office in Kanagawa indicted former staff caretaker Satoshi Uematsu, 28, for killing 19 residents aged 19 to 70 and injuring 27 people at the care home in the small hours of July 26, 2016. But the first court hearing has yet to be held. Jiji Press