Tokyo’s Shibuya district is usually more famous for its trendy and wholesome sights. However, the popular tourist destination recently became the scene of a shocking crime.
According to Japanese media, a 15-year-old girl randomly stabbed a mother-and-daughter pair with a kitchen knife there. She reportedly did so as a ‘practice run’ as she planned to kill her mother. She also said that she “wanted to get the death penalty”.
The teenager has since been arrested for attempted murder.
Nippon.com reports that police were alerted to a stabbing incident at about 7.25pm on Saturday (20 Aug).
The caller said that two victims, a woman in her 50s and her teenage daughter, were bleeding on the street.
Kyodo News states that the suspect had approached the pair from behind as they were walking on a street near Shibuya Station.
Along the narrow street lined with restaurants and houses, she stabbed them with the kitchen knife. Police said that the victims sustained serious injuries that will reportedly take at least three months to heal.
The daughter had a 10cm-deep stab wound on her back, while the mother had injuries on her shoulder, stomach, and back.
According to The Asahi Shimbun, the 53-year-old mother eventually managed to overpower the suspect after the attack. She was heard shouting for help as she questioned who the teenager was, screaming, “I will never forgive you for mistaking us for somebody else.”
Two nearby restaurant workers who witnessed the scene then swooped in to seize the assailant’s knife.
Teen wanted to get death penalty
Witnesses described the suspect as a girl who “had black hair and looked young”, Kyodo News reports.
When police were holding her down, she was crying quietly with knives scattered around her. Besides the kitchen knife, the girl had two other smaller knives in her pocket at the time of the attack. The Metropolitan Police Department has seized all three of them.
While police did not elaborate on the girl’s motive for the attack, she denied that it had anything to do with troubles at home or school. However, it was revealed that she wanted to conduct a ‘practice run’ to determine if she was capable of killing a person. Investigative sources claim that this was because she planned to kill her own mother.
The police also shared that the suspect “wanted to get the death penalty”. After the incident, the 15-year-old attacker was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. She was identified as a junior high school student from Toda, Saitama Prefecture. Her name has been withheld as she is a minor.
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
