This is a milestone for the incident in which the lives of as many as 36 people were lost at a studio of a globally popular animation production company. It is important to bring to light the whole picture of this crime, while also making the suspect face up to what he did.
Kyoto prefectural police arrested a man, now 42, who had been hospitalized since he allegedly committed an arson attack in July last year at Kyoto Animation Co., affectionately called KyoAni. The man is suspected of having splashed gasoline around before setting fire to the studio, thus killing 36 people and attempting to murder 34 others. He has reportedly admitted to the charges.
The man is now bedridden due to the severe burns he sustained in the attack. Even so, police decided to arrest him, apparently because they were concerned that the memory of his alleged crime would be fading 10 months after the incident.
While in the hospital, the suspect was shut off from any information related to the incident. He reportedly had no idea that the death toll from his alleged attack climbed to 36 until a warrant was read out at the time of his arrest.
From now on, the man will definitely learn about the kind of work each and every one of the victims did and which family members they lived with. He must learn of the agony that the bereaved families are feeling and accept the serious consequences of his actions.
Many of the victims were young creators of KyoAni works. It was a huge loss for the animation industry.
According to police, the suspect claimed that novels he submitted to the company had been plagiarized. "I had a grudge against KyoAni, and I thought I could kill a lot of people using gasoline," he was quoted as saying.
KyoAni admitted that it had received works from a person whose name matched that of the suspect when it invited the public to submit novels and other works in the past. However, the company denied that it had plagiarized the person's novels, saying there is no similarity with its works.
Is it a one-sided grudge based on the suspect's own assumptions? Or is there another reason? It is essential to carefully unravel every development leading to the point where he made up his mind to commit the attack.
The suspect is being questioned while in bed. The time for interrogations may be limited depending on his condition. It will surely also be difficult for police to use various investigative methods, such as taking him to relevant locations for on-site investigations.
With the probe being carried out under so many restrictions, this case will surely pose a challenge, but it is hoped that investigators will get to the truth about the arson attack by accumulating material evidence and the like.
Even before his alleged crime, the suspect caused trouble over and over and was diagnosed as having a mental disorder. He will likely be taken into custody for a mental evaluation in the future to determine whether he can bear criminal responsibility.
If the suspect is indicted, the case will be examined in a lay judge trial. Considering the large number of victims, the trial is expected to be prolonged.
Over this period, the bereaved families and those injured in the incident will have to once again face what happened at that time. It is hoped that the prefectural police and private organizations working to support crime victims will take a long-term perspective in providing them with assistance in such areas as their psychological state and their daily life.
-- This article appeared in the print version of The Yomiuri Shimbun on May 30, 2020.
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