KANAGAWA (TR) – Last week, a court here ordered a U.S. sailor to pay more than 15 million yen in compensation for injuring four people after ramming into them with his body during a drunken rampage in Zushi City three years ago.
A video obtained by TBS News (Apr. 25) shows the chaotic scene that unfolded after the incident, whose victims are still dealing with aftereffects.
According to the ruling handed down at the Yokohama District Court on Friday, the unnamed petty officer body-slammed the four people near a beach on the evening of July 9, 2022.
The sailor, who was stationed at the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka City, then fled the scene. Afterward, the four victims endured physical and mental suffering, the court said.
In the video clip, several police officers escort the shirtless soldier from a railway station amid angry shouts from passersby. At one point, the petty officer is filmed while he is on the ground, lying face-up as officers stand around him.
“I’ve never been hit by a car, but it was that shocking. I still think it was an attempted ‘street murder,'” one female victim tells the network.
In the incident, the woman was pushed from behind and fell face-first onto the ground, fracturing her eye fundus, which is the inside surface in the back. She was seriously injured, suffering broken bones in both hands. It took nine months for her to recover. In a photo shown by the network, her face is reddened and both of her arms are heavily bandaged.
“If I’d been hit in a different place, I would have died,” she added.
A colleague of the woman who chased the American said, “When I caught up with him, he tried to hit me. I thought he was going to attack me when he saw me, but he ran away. His pupils were dilated.”
Not handcuffed, not arrested
The American soldier was finally apprehended on the aforementioned train platform. Footage of the incident immediately afterwards shows that he was not handcuffed. He was also not arrested.
He was voluntarily taken to the police station, but he refused to take alcohol and drug tests. He subsequently took a taxi home.
Under the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement, the decision to hand over a suspect before indictment is left to the discretion of the U.S. military.
A lawyer for the victims said it would have been possible to arrest him at the scene. “It’s possible that the police found out he was a U.S. Navy soldier and took that into some kind of consideration,” said lawyer Masahiko Goto.
The U.S. soldier was then indicted on assault charges while still at home. He claimed innocence, saying he was in a state of insanity due to the effects of alcohol.
Suspended prison term
The four victims are aged in their 20s to 60s. In the civil suit, they sought a total of 21.6 million in compensation.
In explaining the ruling, the judge said that sailor had “accumulated frustration due to a chronic illness” due to alcohol. The judge went on to say that the sailor “impulsively directed his anger toward passersby.”
However, the judge rejected the defense that he experienced “severe impaired consciousness due to acute alcohol poisoning.”
In a ruling for a criminal trial handed down in September, the Yokosuka Branch of the Yokohama District Court handed the sailor — named as Daniel Krieger — to a prison term of two years and four months, suspended for four years.
Returned to U.S.
The aforementioned female victim is now battling the aftereffects of the incident.
“When I picked up a glass, I thought I was holding it, but I wasn’t using enough strength and it fell,” she tells the network. “It felt like electricity was running from the tips of my fingers to my side. I don’t know when the numbness is going to appear. It happens several times a day.”
She added, “I’m grateful to so many people for helping me in so many ways. I couldn’t have come this far on my own.”
Just before the civil ruling was handed down, it was discovered that the American sailor had returned to the U.S., which will make it difficult for the victims to be paid and, if necessary, seize his property.
“We asked them not to let him return to the U.S. until he had fulfilled his responsibilities, but we were betrayed,” said aforementioned lawyer Masahiko Goto.
The victims are also in the process of filing a claim for compensation from the U.S. government under the Status of Forces Agreement.
According to TBS News, the U.S. soldier still has not apologized to the victims.
