CHIBA (TR) – Chiba Prefectural Police have arrested a 36-year-old male employee in the construction industry in connection with the fatal beating of a man last week, reports NHK (Sept. 5).
At around 4:45 a.m. on September 3, a guard for the Chiba Central Medical Center in Chiba City alerted police after two men dropped off a third man, who appeared to have been beaten over his entire body, at the night window of the outpatient clinic.
The third man, later identified as Tomohiro Shimamura, a 32-year-old resident of Koshigaya City, Saitama Prefecture, was confirmed dead about 20 minutes later, the Chiba-Higashi Police Station said previously.
On September 4, police arrested Daiki Tanaka, 36, on suspicion of abandoning a corpse. He surrendered at the Soka Police Station in Saitama the night before. “After assaulting him, we left him unconscious and not breathing,” the suspect was quoted by police.
“We thought he was lying”
Tanaka is not acquainted with the victim. Prior to the incident, the suspect and his accomplice abducted Shimamura in the parking lot for a bar in Yashio City, Saitama at around 1:20 a.m. on September 3.
When they asked Shimamura his name, he replied, “Shimamura.” However, they were looking for someone of another name. “We thought he was lying,” Tanaka told police, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun (Sept. 5).
The suspect and his accomplice then beat Shimamura. “We assaulted him, but he was the wrong guy,” he was quoted by police. They later dropped him off at the hospital, a distance of 40 kilometers from the parking lot.
After the pair left Shimamura at the clinic, they fled. Police are now seeking the whereabouts of the second perpetrator.
