TOKYO (XINHUA) – A police officer shot a man wielding two knives in Osaka in western Japan yesterday after the man apparently slashed a woman during a dispute at an apartment building.
According to the police, the 58-year-old man, arrested on suspicion of violation of the swords and firearms control law, was conscious when he was taken to hospital after a bullet hit his right flank.
Osaka Prefectural Police’s Suminoe police station received an emergency call at around 6am saying that a man and woman were quarreling at an apartment building in the city’s Suminoe Ward.
One of the three police officers who rushed to the scene warned the man carrying two kitchen knives to drop the weapons and fired a shot into the air. But the man approached the officer saying “shoot me” and the officer fired another shot, aiming for his leg, the police said.
The woman in her 70s, a resident of the apartment building, told the police she did not know the attacker, although he claims to live there. She is believed to have been attacked suddenly by him after she finished taking out trash to the complex’s garbage bins, the police said.
The woman sustained head injuries but was conscious, and police are investigating the details of the incident. “We determined that the police officer’s use of a handgun was within the proper execution of duties,” police station deputy chief Naoki Honda said.
