The 26-year-old, identified as Satoshi Uematsu, who has admitted to murdering 19 people at a facility for the disabled in central Japan grinned to news cameras on Wednesday before being taken away for questioning in a police van.
The accused was escorted out of a police station into a waiting van with a blue jacket draped over his head. Inside the vehicle, he smiled broadly at the flashing cameras.
Uematsu reportedly said he wanted all disabled people to "disappear". He went on a knife rampage and stabbed 19 people in cold blood. However, all 19 had not yet been officially declared dead but were all "in a state of cardiac arrest", the official said.
In the month of February, Uematsu was fired from job at the care home and was forcibly hospitalised job at the care home and was forcibly hospitalise after confided to his colleagues that he intended to kill disabled people at the centre.
According to reports, Satoshi Uematsu broke into the Tsukui Yamayuri-en care centre in the forested hills of Sagamihara city in the early hours yesterday.
He then tied up two caregivers before stabbing residents. The dead ranged in age from 18 to 70 and included nine males and 10 females, said The Kyodo news agency. Earlier media reports had said as many as 45 people had been wounded.
At around 2:50am an emergency call was made and police rushed to the spot. Uematsu surrendered to the police saying "I did it".
A bag with several knives, at least one stained with blood had been recovered.
"We are still investigating possible motives," said Police.
