AICHI (TR) – It started with a gun and ended with a bang.
At just past 7:00 a.m., an officer working off a tip approached a parked vehicle in Seto City.
When the officer got to the window of the car, a man later identified as Ken Ogata, of no known occupation, flashed what appeared to be a pistol.
After starting the engine of the vehicle, Ogata, 43, fled on foot. He then commandeered a dump truck. A chase commenced.
Over the next two hours plus, Ogata captained the truck over a distance of 18 kilometers — through Nisshin and Toyota cities — with at least one patrol car in hot pursuit.
The end came when Ogata slammed the truck into a patrol car back in Seto. Upon his arrest on suspicion of interfering with the duties of a public servant, Ogata denied the allegations. “I didn’t hit the police car on purpose,” he said.
It was a local resident in Seto who first alerted police about Ogata. “There’s a suspicious-looking vehicle parked,” the caller said at around 6:35 a.m.
