Shinzo Abe Assassinated While Making Election Speech in Japan
July 7th, 2022Update: Japan Ex-PM Abe Assassinated While Making Election Campaign Speech
Via: Reuters:
Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving leader, died on Friday hours after he was shot while campaigning for a parliamentary election, shocking a country in which political violence is rare and guns are tightly controlled.
A man opened fire on Abe, 67, from behind with an apparently homemade gun as he spoke at a drab traffic island in the western city of Nara, Japanese media reported.
It was the first assassination of a sitting or former Japanese premier since the days of prewar militarism in 1936.
Doctors struggled to save Abe but he died at 5:03 p.m. (0803 GMT), about five and a half hours after being shot.
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Update: Improvised Shotgun
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Via: Reuters:
Japanese former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot on Friday while campaigning in the city of Nara, a government spokesman said, with public broadcaster NHK saying he appeared to have been shot from behind by a man with a shotgun.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said he did not know Abe’s condition. Authorities have arrested a 42-year-old man who appeared to have shot Abe, media reported.
