After a 16-day nationwide search, police on Thursday arrested a high school boy on suspicion of assaulting four teammates from his school's baseball club and then beating his mother to death with a baseball bat in Okayama Prefecture last month.
The 17-year-old boy, whose name is being withheld because he is a minor, was arrested by police in Akita Prefecture -- 16 days after he disappeared following the June 21 incidents.
Police transported him to Okayama Prefecture later in the day. He has admitted to investigators that he assaulted his teammates and mother, according to police sources.
After allegedly assaulting and seriously injuring the other boys, the youth is suspected of beating his mother to death at their home in the town of Osafune, police said.