KYOTO -- The suspect in last year's deadly arson attack that killed 36 people at a Kyoto Animation Co. studio told police in an interrogation just after his arrest on Wendesday that he had not expected so many people to die in the incident, it has been learned.
According to investigative sources, Shinji Aoba, who was arrested by the Kyoto prefectural police on suspicion of murder and other charges, told the police that he thought the number of deaths from the attack would have been around two.
Aoba had been hospitalized since the incident and learned of the full death toll for the first time when he was arrested, the police said. The prefectural police have been thoroughly questioning him since Thursday to investigate his motives.
On July 18 last year, Aoba spread gasoline on the first floor of KyoAni's No. 1 studio in Fushimi Ward, Kyoto, killing 36 people, mainly employees, and injuring 33. On Wednesday, Aoba was arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in the arson case.
Aoba suffered severe burns in the incident and had been hospitalized for treatment. The police had asked the hospital not to let Aoba know the details of the incident, and investigators said Aoba learned that the number of the dead was 36 on Wednesday morning when he heard the police reading out an arrest warrant in front of him, according to the police.
During the interrogation followed, Aoba told the police, "There were only around two people I saw [at the time of the incident], so I thought the number of people who died would have been two or so."
He also told the police, "I thought using gasoline could kill a lot of people," and did not appear upset even after learning the full extent of the damage, the sources said.
Aoba named several KyoAni films and said, according to the police: "I set a fire because the setting of a novel I submitted [to the studio] was plagiarized. I had a grudge against KyoAni," according to the police.
He gave a similar explanation in voluntary questioning conducted last November when he was hospitalized. KyoAni, in the company's novel competition, received two submissions from a person whose name and address matched those of the suspect. However, neither of them passed the first screening because of problems in their formats.
After the arrest, a lawyer for KyoAni held a press conference Wednesday and categorically denied Aoba's claim: "His works were excluded in the formality screening, and no one could know of the content of his works. So there was no chance for the company's works to become similar [to his works]."
Aoba, currently detained at the Osaka Detention House, is unable to get up on his own. Due to such circumstances, the police have to limit the time of interrogations. The police will examine Aoba's physical condition before investigating the details of how the incident happened.
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