A former gangster was holding a woman hostage in a house in Nagakute, Aichi Prefecture, late Thursday after shooting his son, daughter and two police officers during a tense standoff with police.
The situation intensified as it took more than five hours for local police to rescue Sgt. Akifumi Kimoto, who had collapsed outside the front door after he was shot in the neck shortly after 4 p.m.
The gunman, identified as Hisato Obayashi, 50, was holding hostage a woman believed to be another member of his family and threatened to open fire if an ambulance arrived.
Immeditately after the police force rescued Kimoto, Obayashi, who once belonged to a yakuza group affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate, shot a second officer at around 9:30 p.m.