Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Assassinated

63-year-old Shinzo Abe, the former Prime Minister of Japan from 2006-2007 and 2012-2020, was fatally shot at 11:30AM JST on Friday (equating to 10:30PM EST, Thursday). Abe had been speaking at a campaign rally in support of candidates of his Liberal Democratic Party in Nara city, CNN reports, when 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami fired two shots from the crowd and hit Abe once. Though medics rushed to airlift him to Nara Medical University Hospital, the severe damage to his neck and heart resulted in his death by blood loss five and a half hours later, ABC News reports.

Police arrested Yamagami at the scene. Yamagami, “a former member of Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force,” confessed that he had attacked Abe due to believed political associations, according to NPR. Due to Japan’s restrictive gun control laws, Yamagami had used a handmade gun, several more of which were found at his home. These laws made the incident particularly stunning, as Japan is considered one of the world’s safest countries, states ABC News. The country reported only one death from firearms in 2021, compared to more than 32,000 in the USA the same year, including suicides.

Leaders from across the world offered their grief and support of Abe’s legacy in response to the assassination. The former Prime Minister was widely known for his impact on international order and the solidification of Japan’s place in trade and diplomacy, as well as his strong criticism of China, according to NPR.

90 investigators have been assigned to the shooting case, states CNN, while Yamagami remains the central suspect.