NIIGATA (TR) – Niigata Prefectural Police have arrested a 77-year-old man after he slashed a female clerk during a scuffle at a bakery in Niigata City on Thursday, reports Nippon News Network (Apr. 17).
At around 9:10 a.m. on Thursday, police received a distress call reporting that a woman had been cut and injured with a knife at the Bandai City Bus Center building in Chuo Ward.
The woman, a female employee in her 20s working at the bakery on the first floor of the bus center, was transported to a hospital, but her injuries are not life-threatening, police said.
Officers from the Niigata Chuo Police Station arrested Osamu Sodoyama, of no known occupation, on suspicion of violating the Swords and Firearms Control Law. He was found near the scene in possession of a bread knife with a blade approximately 30.5 centimeters long.
Sodeyama is accused of storming into the bakery, making his way into the kitchen, grabbing the bread-slicing knife and thrusting it at the female employee. A physical struggle ensued between the suspect and the employee, resulting in the woman sustaining injuries to her neck.
During questioning, Sodoyama admitted to the charges, stating, “I had the knife because I was short on money and wanted to threaten the shopkeeper to extort money from [her].”
Police investigations revealed a bizarre detail about the daytime incident: While threatening the worker with the blade, the septuagenarian also brandished a pair of chopsticks he had been hiding in his pocket.
Courage of the staff member”
The manager of the bakery said, “I wasn’t in the store when the incident happened, but I heard that a man came in shortly after opening, grabbed a knife from inside the store, and pointed it at a staff member.”
According to the manager, the victim was working alone after opening.
“It really breaks my heart to see the courage of the staff member who tried to take back the knife, even to the point of getting injured,” the manager said.
Police further charged Sodoyama of robbery resulting in injury the next day. “I did a bad thing,” he said in commenting on the latest allegations.
