CHIBA (TR) – Chiba Prefectural Police have arrested a 60-year-old man over the alleged beating of his bedridden mother, who later died, at their home in the town of Sakae last week, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Jan. 8).
On the morning of December 6, Ichiro Kobayashi reported to police that his mother had died. Officers from the Narita Police Station arriving at the residence, located in the Ryukakujidai area, found his mother, 84-year-old Sumiko, lying atop a futon in a bedroom.
Police confirmed the woman, who was found to have bruises on her legs and an injury above her right eye, dead at the scene.
Kobayashi, who was arrested the following day on suspicion of inflicting injury, told police that he beat his mother in the face several times between December 26 and January 6. “Since she called me many times in the middle of the night, I beat her three days ago,” the suspect told police, according to TBS News (Jan. 7).
Police are investigating the cause of death of the woman and considering whether to change the charges against the suspect to manslaughter.