The 31-year-old man arrested over Thursday's stabbing and shooting incident, which left four people dead in the city of Nakano, Nagano Prefecture, asked his mother to shoot him during an hourslong standoff at his home, an investigative source said Monday.
Masanori Aoki surrendered to police in the early hours of Friday after holing up for about 12 hours following the attacks, and was arrested for the alleged fatal shooting of a policeman with a hunting rifle.
During the standoff, Aoki, the son of a local assembly member who resigned following the incident, contemplated suicide but could not go through with it, so he handed a gun to his mother and asked her to shoot him, the source said, citing the account the mother gave to the police.