Yokohama ¨C A police officer fired a warning shot after a car rammed into a convenience store in the city of Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, early Monday.
At around 12:10 a.m., a worker at the store made an emergency call to police reporting that a vehicle crashed into the shop and that a man was holding a kitchen knife.
A police officer who rushed to the scene found a man with a knife in a parking lot. As the man did not follow a verbal warning, the officer fired a warning shot into the air and then arrested him on suspicion of violating the firearms and swords control law.
A 15-year-old male customer in the store was hit by the vehicle and suffered slight injuries. No one was injured by the warning shot.
The suspect is Kyohei Shibuya, 45, who lives nearby, according to the Kanagawa Prefectural Police Department¡¯s Sagamihara station.
Shibuya admitted to the allegations against him and also said that he had set fire to his house. Following his statement, police officers confirmed that a room in a nearby apartment was on fire. Local firefighters extinguished the blaze.
The police are still investigating the crime and the suspect¡¯s motive.
¡°At this moment, we believe that the use of the handgun was appropriate,¡± Yuichi Nagata, deputy chief of the police station, said of the warning shot.
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