Security experts who reviewed footage say Shinzo Abe's life could have been saved.
Posted: Jul 19, 2022 9:54 AM ET | Last Updated: 1 hour ago
The failure to protect Abe from the second shot followed a series of security lapses in the lead-up to the assassination of Japan's longest-serving prime minister on July 8, the Japanese and international experts said. After leaving 67-year-old Abe exposed from behind as he spoke on a traffic island on a public road, his security detail allowed the shooter — identified by police as Tetsuya Yamagami, 41 — to come unchecked within metres of Abe. Yamagami was carrying a weapon, the footage showed.
Asked about the experts' analysis, the Nara Prefectural Police, in charge of security for Abe's campaign stop, told Reuters in a statement the department was "committed to thoroughly identifying the security problems" with Abe's protection, declining to comment further.The video footage showed that, after the first shot, Abe turns and looks over his left shoulder. Two bodyguards scramble to get between him and the shooter, one hoisting a slim black bag.
There was enough security, "but no sense of danger," said Yasuhiro Sasaki, a retired police officer in Saitama prefecture near Tokyo.Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe laid to rest in private funeral in Tokyo Reuters could not reach Yamagami, who remains in police custody, for comment and could not determine whether he had a lawyer.Footage shows four bodyguards inside the guardrails as Abe spoke, according to Koichi Ito, a former sergeant at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's special assault team, who is now a security consultant. The number of bodyguards was corroborated by local politician Masahiro Okuni, who was at the scene.
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