IBARAKI (TR) – Ibaraki Prefectural Police arrested a 23-year-old man following the stabbing of a male customer at a convenience store in Tsukuba City early Wednesday.
“I was stabbed in the back,” the victim pleaded for help to a clerk at the store at around 12:45 a.m. The victim, who was bleeding, then collapsed inside the store.
The man had a single stab wound on his back. He was taken to a hospital unconscious. He remains in critical condition, police said.
Approximately two hours later, at around 2:47 a.m., Ryuki Okano appeared at a police station with a bloodstained fruit knife. Police then arrested him for violating the Swords and Firearms Control Law.
“I had it for self-defense,” Okano said of the knife. “I stabbed a stranger. I thought I was being targeted.” Police are investigating whether the victim at the convenience store was stabbed by Okano.
