Powerboss
06-08-2001, 06:01 AM
Next thing, they'll be outlawing knives there. What a sick b@stard. How can you anti death penalty guys think in any way a sicko like this can reform or be forgiven?
He needs to be put out of existence.
Man Kills 8 Students at Japan School
By Eric Prideaux
Associated Press Writer
Friday, June 8, 2001; 2:48 a.m. EDT
TOKYO –– A man armed with a kitchen knife forced his way into an elementary school in western Japan on Friday and stabbed at least 29 people, killing eight children, authorities said. Most of the victims were first- or second-grade students.
Two children were killed immediately and another six died at hospitals after the attack in the western Japan city of Osaka, said Tetsuo Higashimoto, a fire department spokesman.
Six more victims were in serious condition, said Tesuya Taniguchi, another fire department official.
Police official Toshihiko Ajisaka said 26 children, including those who died, and three teachers were stabbed. He said the stabbings occurred shortly after classes began at the elementary school in Osaka.
Most of the victims were first- or second-grade students. Six of the dead were second-grade girls. The ages of the other victims were not known.
Police said the attacker, a 37-year-old man who carried a kitchen knife with a six-inch blade, was arrested at the scene, but was also injured and taken to a local hospital.
The attacker was identified as Mamoru Takuma. Media reports said he was formerly employed at a different elementary school in Osaka.
"We are filled with anger over this unfortunate situation," said Kaoru Nakatani, head of Osaka Education University, which operates the elementary school.
National Broadcaster NHK reported that the attack occurred during a recess, when the attacker climbed into a first-grade classroom from a verandah and began slashing children in the back of the room and then in the hallway.
Several children were slashed in their sides and arms as he moved into three other classrooms before two male teachers were able to stop him, it said. School officials ordered the children on the school's playground after calling the police.
NHK said most of the victims appeared to have suffered minor injuries.
It was not immediately clear what motivated the attack, though NHK and other television networks reported that he may have been under the influence of drugs. Nearly 700 children attend the school.
"This kind of thing should never happen," said Education Minister Atsuko Toyama. "Schools should be places where children can feel safe and secure."
The mass stabbing is the latest in a recent surge of crimes in Japan, where youth violence and crime in general have reached near-record highs.
A 7-year-old boy playing in a schoolyard in western Japan was fatally stabbed by a teen-age assailant in December 1999. In August last year, a teen-ager was arrested for stabbing to death three members of a neighbor's family.
The school attack was Japan's worst mass-killing since 1995, when a doomsday cult released nerve gas on Tokyo's subways, killing 12 people and sickening thousands
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Man — every man — is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.
Ayn Rand
He needs to be put out of existence.
Man Kills 8 Students at Japan School
By Eric Prideaux
Associated Press Writer
Friday, June 8, 2001; 2:48 a.m. EDT
TOKYO –– A man armed with a kitchen knife forced his way into an elementary school in western Japan on Friday and stabbed at least 29 people, killing eight children, authorities said. Most of the victims were first- or second-grade students.
Two children were killed immediately and another six died at hospitals after the attack in the western Japan city of Osaka, said Tetsuo Higashimoto, a fire department spokesman.
Six more victims were in serious condition, said Tesuya Taniguchi, another fire department official.
Police official Toshihiko Ajisaka said 26 children, including those who died, and three teachers were stabbed. He said the stabbings occurred shortly after classes began at the elementary school in Osaka.
Most of the victims were first- or second-grade students. Six of the dead were second-grade girls. The ages of the other victims were not known.
Police said the attacker, a 37-year-old man who carried a kitchen knife with a six-inch blade, was arrested at the scene, but was also injured and taken to a local hospital.
The attacker was identified as Mamoru Takuma. Media reports said he was formerly employed at a different elementary school in Osaka.
"We are filled with anger over this unfortunate situation," said Kaoru Nakatani, head of Osaka Education University, which operates the elementary school.
National Broadcaster NHK reported that the attack occurred during a recess, when the attacker climbed into a first-grade classroom from a verandah and began slashing children in the back of the room and then in the hallway.
Several children were slashed in their sides and arms as he moved into three other classrooms before two male teachers were able to stop him, it said. School officials ordered the children on the school's playground after calling the police.
NHK said most of the victims appeared to have suffered minor injuries.
It was not immediately clear what motivated the attack, though NHK and other television networks reported that he may have been under the influence of drugs. Nearly 700 children attend the school.
"This kind of thing should never happen," said Education Minister Atsuko Toyama. "Schools should be places where children can feel safe and secure."
The mass stabbing is the latest in a recent surge of crimes in Japan, where youth violence and crime in general have reached near-record highs.
A 7-year-old boy playing in a schoolyard in western Japan was fatally stabbed by a teen-age assailant in December 1999. In August last year, a teen-ager was arrested for stabbing to death three members of a neighbor's family.
The school attack was Japan's worst mass-killing since 1995, when a doomsday cult released nerve gas on Tokyo's subways, killing 12 people and sickening thousands
------------------
Man — every man — is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.
Ayn Rand