Man Accused of Killing 19 at Japanese Mental Health Facility Had Threatened, 'All Disabled Should Cease to Exist'
A Japanese man who allegedly stabbed 19 people to death on Tuesday at a facility for the mentally disabled, outlined the plan in a letter to Parliament months before, writing that disabled people should "cease to exist," according to multiple local media reports.
Satoshi Uematsu, 26, allegedly went on a stabbing rampage at the Tsukui Yamayurien facility in Sagaamihara – about 30 miles from Tokyo – killing 19 people and injuring at least 25 in the country's deadliest mass killing since the end of World War II, the Associated Press reports.
The suspect shattered a window at the facility and broke in at around 2:10 a.m., according to the AP. He then began slashing the patients' throats for nearly an hour. There were about 150 people at the facility.
He turned himself in to police after the rampage.
Months earlier, in February, the man allegedly sent a letter to the office of Japanese lawmaker Tadamori Oshima, writing that he planned to kill hundreds of disabled people in a carefully planned attack on two facilities before turning himself in, according to NBC News.
In the letter, published by the Kyodo News Service, the man demanded that all disabled people be put to death through "mercy killing" and asked that he be judged innocent by reason of insanity.
"I envision a world where a person with multiple disabilities can be euthanized, with an agreement from the guardians, when it is difficult for the person to carry out household and social activities," he reportedly wrote in the letter, according to NBC.
"Now is the time to carry out a revolution and make an inevitable but tough decision for the sake of all mankind … The disabled can only create misery."
Local police and health officials took note of the letter and Uematsu was committed to a psychiatric facility the same month, NBC reports. He was released weeks later, in March, after hospital officials determined that he was no longer a danger to himself or others.
Uematsu used to work at the facility according to ABC News.
Officials said that the suspect killed 10 women and nine men, with the youngest victim 19 years old and the oldest 70.
