Sendai Policeman’s Killer May Have Tried to Steal Gun

September 20, 2018

Sendai, Miyagi Pref.- A university student who stabbed a policeman to death at a police box in the northeastern Japan city of Sendai on Wednesday may have tried to steal a gun, investigative sources said Thursday.

The body of the policeman, Hiroaki Seino, 33, had cuts he suffered apparently during his attempts to fight back against the attacker, Yuta Aizawa, 21, according to the sources.

As no past trouble has been confirmed between the two, the Miyagi prefectural police department suspects that stealing a gun may have been the purpose of committing the crime.

The attacker, a third-year student at Tohoku Gakuin University in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, was shot dead by another police officer.

By searching Aizawa's home and other locations, the police aim to shed light on the attacker's motive and how he obtained the murder weapon.

Aizawa visited the police box in Miyagino Ward of Sendai around 4 a.m. (7 p.m. Tuesday GMT), reporting that he had found someone's cash.

After exchanging words for a few minutes, Aizawa stabbed Seino in his belly and chest multiple times with a knife with a blade of about 20 centimeters, which was later found not to be a kitchen knife, the sources said.

Aizawa also tried to attack a 47-year-old police sergeant who rushed to the scene from a different room at the police box.

After the attacker refused to follow his order to drop the knife, the sergeant fired three shots at him.

Aizawa also carried with him what appeared to be a model machine gun, a driver and a box-cutter.

The police said Seino and Aizawa both died from loss of blood, with the policeman suffering damage to his heart and the attacker to his lung. Jiji Press