IBARAKI (TR) – Ibaraki Prefectural Police have arrested a 30-year-old man for allegedly stabbing a female acquaintance outside a local “snack” bar in the town of Oarai while a second woman was discovered dead nearby, reports Nippon News Network (Oct. 5).
Kotaro Uchiyama, who is believed to have been a customer at the establishment, was taken into custody after police received an emergency call at around 10:00 p.m. on Sunday reporting that “a man is attacking a woman.”
Uchiyama is accused of stabbing the female victim in the left side of her abdomen using gardening shears with a 15-centimeter blade near the entrance of the bar. She was transported to a hospital, and her injuries are reported to be non-life-threatening.
In a grim escalation, a 72-year-old woman believed to be affiliated with the snack bar was found collapsed outside a nearby residence. She was bleeding heavily from wounds to her neck and back. She was rushed to a hospital but was subsequently pronounced dead.
“It sounded like a young woman’s voice,” a neighborhood resident told reporters. “I could hear her screaming, ‘Help me, help me.'”
Upon his arrest, Uchiyama exercised his right to remain silent. Police are currently investigating the connection between the suspect and the fatal attack on the 72-year-old woman.
