TOKYO — Investigators searching the apartment of the suspect in a bloody rampage found evidence Tuesday that he bought a small cache of knives and other weapons just before the assault, police said.
Tomohiro Kato, a 25-year- old factory worker, was handed over to the Tokyo prosecutors’ office Tuesday as more Internet postings surfaced depicting him as increasingly despondent before the attack and intent on killing people.
In one posting, he reportedly called himself “worse than trash.”
“Oh, I am hopeless,” he wrote two days before the attack, according to reports in The Asahi, a Tokyo newspaper. “What I want to do: commit murder. My dream: to monopolize the tabloid TV shows.”
Police say Kato slammed a rented truck into pedestrians in a crowded shopping district Sunday, then jumped out and began a stabbing spree.
Three people were killed by the truck, four died from stab wounds and 10 others were injured, police said. Kato, blood spattered on his face and clothes, was arrested.
Kato reportedly posted Internet messages on “Extreme Exchange.” Experts say it is one of a growing number of websites used for dubious contacts such as seeking out accomplices in criminal activities or for group suicides or to buy and sell illegal drugs.
Kato has said he acted alone; the motive for the attack remained unclear.
Police spokesmen who requested anonymity during the ongoing investigation said Kato has broken down in tears during questioning and has confessed to the crimes, but he has been unapologetic.
National broadcaster NHK showed surveillance tapes of the truck slamming into the crowd in the Akihabara shopping district and of a man jumping out and running wildly among the panicked bystanders.
It also obtained surveillance footage of Kato buying hunting knives at an outdoor recreation store two days before the attack. Kato is seen on the tape laughing with the salesman and at times making stabbing motions with his hands.
Three days before the attack, Kato lost his temper and quit his job at an auto parts factory in Shizuoka, about 100 miles southwest of Tokyo, said company executive Osamu Namai.
Namai said Kato was a “very serious” worker and had not stood out as a troublemaker.
