GUNMA (TR) – Gunma Prefectural Police have arrested a 24-year-old man for slashing a female acquaintance while out for a drive in Maebashi City over the weekend, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Sept. 10).
At around 2:45 p.m. on September 9, Atsushi Tateishi, a company employee living in Takasaki City, allegedly used a santoku knife with a 17-centimeter-long blade to slash the abdomen of the women, a 22-year-old fourth-year university student, as she sat in the passenger vehicle of his stopped vehicle.
After the incident, the woman fled the vehicle. She suffered light injuries that will require 5 days to heal, the Maebashi Police Station said.
On Monday, police arrested Tateishi on suspicion of attempted murder. “I don’t know anything about it since I did not do it,” the suspect was quoted by police in denying the allegations.
According to police, the victim works part-time at a bar where the suspect met her as a customer in January. After the pair ventured out on a drive in the vehicle, the suspect retrieved the knife from the dashboard. Later that night, she consulted with police.
Police are now investigating the circumstances that led to the incident.
