Bullets recovered on grounds of Toyama elementary school in fatal stabbing, shooting

TOYAMA -- Bullets were found in two locations inside the Toyama Municipal Okuda Elementary School building where a suspect fled after fatally stabbing a police officer at a nearby police box and fatally shot a school security guard, investigators told the Mainichi Shimbun on June 28.

A bullet was also found where elementary school gate security guard Shinichi Nakamura, 68, was shot, and another was extracted from the body of the suspect, 21-year-old former Self-Defense Forces member Keita Shimazu. The total number of bullets confirmed in the area around the school now stands at four. Some 410 students were in the middle of classes at the time, but after the school received a warning from police, all students were evacuated safely to the gymnasium.

According to Toyama Prefectural Police, in addition to the five shots Shimazu fired after stabbing and stealing the gun of Okuta Police Box officer Kenichi Inaizumi, 46, the two Toyama police officers shot another two bullets at Shimazu when trying to take him into custody, for a total of 7 bullets. Three of the bullets fired by Shimazu with Inaizumi's gun were found near the main gate of Okuda Elementary School: one on the floor of a prefabricated hallway on the east side of the school building, one in the ceiling of the old school nurse's office adjacent to the hallway, which is no longer in use, and one near where Nakamura collapsed, respectively.

At roughly 2 p.m. on June 26, the suspect attacked Inaizumi at the police box near the school. At 2:07 p.m., a police box worker made an emergency call. School authorities said they were contacted by police about the situation roughly three minutes later, and were instructed by prefectural police to keep the students from going outside to return home. The school quickly decided to do so, closing the doors and beginning preparations to evacuate the children.

Investigative sources report that Shimazu appears to have fired two shots toward the school building from around the main gate. After that, he fatally shot Nakamura. At around 2:25 p.m., police officers that had arrived on the scene shot at Shimazu, and arrested him.

(Japanese original by Shun Morino and Ikuko Aoyama, Toyama Bureau, and Masakatsu Yamasaki, Osaka City News Department)