SAITAMA (TR) – Saitama Prefectural Police have re-arrested two persons already in custody over several baseball-bat attacks in the prefecture for an incident in which the victim died, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Feb. 2).
In the early morning hours of December 6, Seiya Sakurai, 22, and Keisuke Sugawara, 22, allegedly came up from behind taxi driver Toshikatsu Sakurai, 63, on a road in Shiki City and beat him over the head with baseball bats. The pair fled the scene after taking a bag belonging to the victim.
Five days later, the office of the victim telephoned police when he failed to arrive at work. Officers arriving at his residence found him collapsed inside. On December 14, he was confirmed dead due at a hospital to trauma to the brain.
Seiya Sakurai, who has been accused of robbery resulting in death, admits to the allegations. However, Sugawara has declined to comment on the charges.
Other attacks
Police had previously arrested the suspects and sent them to prosecutors over a number of separate attacks. That same month, the pair allegedly used bats to beat and rob a man, 58, of 40,000 yen in Niiza City. In another case, they allegedly attacked a man, 61, in Saitama City on December 12. In both cases, both victims were left with serious injuries.
