Overview
- A tip prompted Toyama Prefectural Police to visit the 53-year-old suspect’s home and arrest Katsumi Mori on Sunday after finding a knife in his backpack.
- Investigators say Mori had booked a one-way highway bus ticket to Tokyo and told an acquaintance he planned an indiscriminate stabbing spree there.
- Mori told police he wanted to die because of severe financial hardship and expected to be shot by police or sentenced to death if he carried out an attack.
- Authorities charged him with the uncommon offense of preparation for murder, a step that a former investigator praised as crucial to stopping an attack before it occurred.
- Police continue to corroborate witness accounts and build a timeline while warning that past mass attacks such as the 2008 Akihabara massacre can inspire copycat plots and shape prevention efforts.