A 57-year-old man was arrested Monday on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in connection with the shooting death last month of a nurse and wounding of a doctor at a hospital in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, police said.
Kazuya Umano, a former underworld figure, allegedly shot Ayumi Tanaka, 39, and stabbed Dr. Hitoshi Jinnai, 37, at Senboku Jinnai Hospital on Feb. 27. Jinnai, whose older brother is the deputy director of the hospital, sustained serious wounds to his chest.
Umano had been a patient at the hospital until January. He was quoted as telling police that he bore a grudge against the hospital because staff there told him to go elsewhere, despite promising him that they would take him in again if his condition worsened.
He said he wanted to kill the deputy director as well as Jinnai, police said.
Umano said he did not intend to kill Tanaka, and had simply shot her on impulse.
He was subdued immediately after the attack, but he needed treatment for a liver ailment. Investigators decided that he was healthy enough to undergo questioning.
Umano reportedly told police he bought the gun seven years ago from another gangster.