Police Seek Charges of 24 Counts of Attempted Murder for Former Employee of Care Facility for the Disabled in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture

Original source NHK Web (In Japanese,  the article title has been altered for the translated version): ‘障害者殺傷事件 ２４人殺人未遂容疑で元職員を追送検’:

December 19^th 2016

46 people were attacked at the facility for the intellectual disabled in Sagamihara City in July, police said a former employee was initially arrested for killing 19 inhabitants, the suspect stabbed his victims with a knife in attempt to kill them, and on 19th the police passed information to prosecutors for 24 counts of attempted murder.

In this incident, which occurred in the early morning of July 26, the residents were stabbed with knives one after another at the “Mt. Tsukui Yamayurien” facility for the intellectually disabled in the Midori ward of Sagamihara City. 19 people died and 27 people were injured. A former employee of the facility, Satoshi Uematsu (26) was initially arrested for killing 19 residents, and Uematsu is currently undergoing psychiatric evaluation. Uematsu allegedly infiltrated the facility with five blades, tied up officials, and is believed to have stabbed the residents one after another.

According to the investigation, Uematsu suspects that “disabled people can only be unhappy, so they should die.”
The police have not publicly announced the names of the victims who died since the families does not wish it, however of the 24 injured people, two names have been released with the consent of the family: Kazuya Ono (43) who was seriously injured and. Koji Morohashi (43), who received a slight injury.

“My son has a name”

The 76 year old mother of Koji Morohashi, who was injured in the incident, said about releasing his name, “My son did not do bad things and has a proper name. For myself, I wish talk about my family and I decided to make his name public. ”
She continued; “My son seems to be troubled by the incident, such as by making a loud voice” and “in the middle of the night he would get angry about the incident, but now the wound has healed, he was able to return to the facility, Uematsu is absolutely unforgivable. ” Mr. Tsuyoshi Ozano, 73, the father of Mr. Kazuya Ono, who was seriously injured in the incident, said, “There are people who desire the publication of names of the victims and people who do not,” Some families have disabled family members, I think that there are also people who do not make it public. I think that my son’s personality disorder is nothing to be ashamed of and I speak to you to call the for world’s understanding to change.

“It is necessary to think about balance for each case”

Kanagawa Prefectural Police has not announced the name of 19 resident people who were killed in this case. It explains that it is the strong wishes of families that their names not be announced. On the other hand, with regard to the 24 injured people, the police confirmed their intention to prosecute for their being attacked to their families, and the real names of Mr. Ono and Mr. Morohashi have been announced along with the names, gender and ages of the other 22 injured victims, with the permission of their families.
The police explained when making this information public, that the some of the names of the victims are their real names and others are anonymous because some of the families of the victims requested that their privacy be respected.