A 51-year-old police sergeant shot himself with a pistol Saturday at Hikari Police Station in Hikari, Yamaguchi Prefecture, police said.
They suspect it was a suicide.
At around 9:10 a.m., an officer at the station heard a bang and found the sergeant in a first-floor room, bleeding from his head. He was seated in a chair and holding his pistol in his right hand, according to the police. He was taken to a hospital but died two hours later.
According to the police, the sergeant has been concerned about health problems. He joined the Yamaguchi Prefectural Police in 1973.