OKAYAMA (TR) – The Okayama District Court has handed down a life prison term to an organized crime member over the shooting death of a rival in Okayama City last year, reports Jiji Press (Jan. 30).
In handing down the ruling on Monday, presiding judge Chiwaki Matsuda said that the shooting death of Tadashi Takagi, a 55-year-old executive member of the Ikeda-gumi, by Hideyuki Yamamoto, 32-year-old member of the Kodo-kai, an affiliate gang of the Yamaguchi-gumi, was a crime “that caused great anxiety for local citizens.”
On May 31, 2016, Yamamoto shot and killed Takagi near the parking lot of an apartment building in Minami Ward. He was arrested the following month on charges of murder and violating the Swords and Firearms Control Law after turning himself over to police.
The Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, which includes the Ikeda-gumi as an affiliate gang, formed in 2015 as a rival to the Yamaguchi-gumi in 2015.
Since the formation of the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, it has been engaged in a sometimes violent feud with the Yamaguchi-gumi. The judge added that the killing was a result of the ongoing dispute between the two gangs.
The sentence handed down was that sought by the prosecution.
