A police officer used his handgun to shoot a man wielding two kitchen knives in Osaka on Monday after an altercation at an apartment building in which a woman was injured.
The man, identified as Koji Matsumoto, 58, was conscious when he was taken to hospital after a bullet hit his right flank, police said. He was arrested on suspicion of violating the swords and firearms control law.
The police received an emergency call at around 6 a.m. saying that a man and woman were quarreling in an apartment building in Suminoe Ward. Matsumoto apparently slashed the woman, who was in her 70s, during the dispute, the police said, adding that she had sustained head injuries but was conscious.
One of the three officers who rushed to the scene warned the suspect to drop the weapons and fired a shot into the air. But Matsumoto approached the officer saying "shoot me" and the officer fired another shot, aiming for his leg, according to the police.
The woman, a resident of the apartment building, told the police that she did not know Matsumoto, although he claims to live there. She is believed to have been attacked suddenly by him after she finished taking out trash to the complex's garbage bins, the police said.
"We determined that the police officer's use of a handgun was appropriate in the execution of his duties," said Naoki Honda, deputy chief of Suminoe Police Station, which has jurisdiction over the area.