Prosecutors on Friday indicted Satoshi Uematsu, a former worker at a care home for people with intellectual disabilities in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, for his stabbing attack at the facility that killed 19 people.

According to investigative sources, the Yokohama District Public Prosecutors Office has judged that at the time of the incident, Uematsu was mentally competent enough to take criminal responsibility, although a psychiatric test later found that he has personality disorder.

Uematsu, 27, presented himself at a police station immediately after the attack in July last year and was arrested for allegedly attempting murder in the care facility, Tsukui Yamayuri-en.

He was served two more arrest warrants later on suspicion of murder and was under custody for a mental evaluation for about five months through Monday.

The psychiatric test showed that he has narcissistic personality disorder. People with this condition tend to consider themselves superior to others.

In the past, a murder suspect diagnosed with the same disorder was sentenced to death as the suspect’s mental competency to take criminal responsibility was recognized.

The prosecutors office apparently judged it possible to hold Uematsu responsible because his activities before and after the incident and his remarks just after his arrest suggest that the attack was well-planned.

According to the indictment and other sources, Uematsu broke into Tsukui Yamayuri-en around 2 a.m. on July 26 with five knives, in order to kill residents at the facility.

In the attack, Uematsu stabbed 19 residents to death and injured 24 others. He also bound the wrists of five facility staff members with banding bands and injured two of them. (Jiji Press)