Japan’s NARA, July 8 – Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving politician and former prime minister, passed away on Friday after being shot while running for a parliamentary seat, startling a nation where political unrest is uncommon and firearms are strictly regulated.
On a dull traffic island in the western city of Nara, the shooter approached Abe, 67, and started shooting him from behind. Abe was giving a speech to the public at the time. The weapon seemed to be a handmade gun, according to Japanese media.
Abe’s henchman, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, remarked, “This attack is an act of cruelty that happened during the elections – the very cornerstone of our democracy – and is totally inexcusable.”
It was the first assassination of a current or former Japanese leader since a coup in 1936, which resulted in the deaths of numerous people, including two previous premiers.
Abe, who was brought to the hospital in cardiopulmonary arrest and did not show any vital signs, was unable to be revived. He was pronounced dead five and a half hours after being shot at 5:03 p.m. (08:03 GMT).
Hidetada Fukushima, a professor in charge of emergency medicine at Nara Medical University Hospital, said during a televised news conference that despite receiving more than 100 units of blood in transfusions over the course of four hours, the patient bled to death from deep wounds to the heart and the right side of his neck.
Police reportedly detained a 41-year-old male after being accused of carrying out the shooting. According to NHK, the suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, told police he wanted to assassinate Abe because he was unhappy with him. According to NHK, the suspect admitted to making numerous homemade explosives and weapons in the past.
