Jury trial begins on remand of Toyama police box attack case; defendant Keihiro Shimazu remains silent

The remand trial of Keihiro Shimazu (30), a former Self-Defense Forces officer who was charged with robbery and murder for attacking a police box in 2018 in Toyama City, stabbing a police officer to death, and shooting a security guard with a stolen pistol will begin on the 5th at the Toyama District Court (presiding judge Shinichiro Yuki). The defendant has remained silent throughout the trial court before the case is remanded, and no questioning of the defendant is scheduled this time.

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``I want life in prison. I want the defendant to face his crimes and apologize to his master before he can end his life.'' The wife of the victim, 68-year-old security guard Shinichi Nakamura, expressed her feelings in comments to media outlets ahead of the first trial on the 5th. ``I will continue to live with the emotional scars, shock, and sense of loss.I want the defendant to live with the pain for as long as I live.I believe there is a possibility that the defendant will face the incident, so I want to put it on the line.I want him to live and atone for his crimes,'' he wrote.

Nakamura's wife, who wants to see the case through to the end on behalf of Nakamura, appeals to the defendant, who continues to remain silent, to ``at least tell me your name.''

In desperation, the defendant is said to have assaulted Inspector Kenichi Inaizumi (46) at a police box in order to see if his abilities would work in the Self-Defense Forces. During the investigation, he initially made statements such as, ``I was thinking of killing the police officer, taking the gun he was holding, and then going on to kill the next police officer, and so on.'' However, he changed his mind halfway through the investigation and remained silent in court.

At the remand trial, the main issue is expected to be on sentencing, taking into account the degree of criminal responsibility, motive, and circumstances, assuming that the crime of robbery and murder has been established. There will be a total of 14 hearings, excluding preliminary days, and the hearing will mainly consist of playing DVDs of past witness interviews. The trial concluded on November 16th, and the verdict will be handed down on December 8th.

Before the case was remanded, the trial court in 2021 found that there remained doubts that the suspect had intended to steal the gun before the attack, so it charged him with murder and theft, and sentenced him to life imprisonment instead of the death penalty. On the other hand, in 2022, the Kanazawa branch of the Nagoya High Court threw out the first trial ruling, stating, ``It is natural to assume that the intention was to steal a handgun from the beginning.'' The case was remanded for sentencing based on the conviction of robbery-murder, and the Supreme Court supported it.