A police officer shot and seriously wounded a man believed to have been involved in a pachinko parlor stickup in Saitama Prefecture early Thursday.
The man, identified as Osamu Saito, a 23-year-old unemployed resident of the city of Kawaguchi, was at one point listed in critical condition after he was shot in the chest from close range. His wounds will require treatment for a month.
According to Saitama Prefectural Police, a pachinko parlor in the nearby city of Koshigaya reported that a man with his face covered by a towel broke into the shop, threatened a worker with a knife and handgun, and made off with 7 million yen in cash on a bicycle shortly after 2 a.m.
At around 2:45 a.m., a pair of patrolmen in a cruiser found Saito on a bicycle about 3 km from the pachinko parlor.
He suddenly tried to flee when the officers stopped him.