Tokyo police arrested a 44-year-old man Friday on suspicion of attempted murder after he allegedly injured five people, including two high school boys, with a hammer in western Tokyo before fleeing.
The suspect, Teruyuki Takabayashi, whose occupation is unknown, has denied the charges, saying that he ¡°did not intend to kill.¡±
The Metropolitan Police Department issued a nationwide search for the suspect while also looking for him following the incident in the city of Fussa, Tokyo, on Wednesday.
They found and arrested him in an apartment in the city of Narashino, Chiba Prefecture, after investigating security camera footage. The police said he is believed to have been driving around Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture.
The incident first came to light at 7:20 a.m. Wednesday, when police received an emergency call reporting that ¡°a man with a hammer is assaulting people¡± on a street in the city of Fussa.
Takabayashi allegedly struck the two students with a hammer before spraying officers who arrived at the scene with an unknown liquid substance. Five people were injured in total, including one of the students who suffered a serious fracture to the orbital floor of his left eye, police said.
According to police, Takabayashi¡¯s mother had confronted a group of seven high school students loitering near the home shortly before the incident. The students reportedly agreed to keep the noise down but remained in the area. He then allegedly emerged holding a hammer and launched the attack.
He initially barricaded himself inside his nearby home, threatening officers with what appeared to be a survival knife. After police secured his mother¡¯s safety, the suspect used a sprayer to discharge a yellow liquid at officers, then retreated inside and continued spraying from the second floor.
About four and a half hours later, officers entered the residence, but Takabayashi had already fled. Items resembling a survival knife and multiple hammers were found inside, according to police.
Security camera footage later showed that he escaped through a back entrance during the confusion caused by the second spray, investigators said.
According to police, Takabayashi had been previously arrested in October 2023 on suspicion of attempted murder after allegedly attacking a teenage boy with an axe. The injuries the boy sustained took two weeks to heal.
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