Lots of new details emerged since Sunday about the Tomohiro Kato Akihabara killings. Early on, the media turned their focus to the fact that he seemed to be a fan of doujinshi, military equipment, cars, and Miss Wide Open. Police found evidence of all of the above in his apartment, and of course, the media began to spin their usual web of otaku negativity.

Like I expected, Tomohiro expected there to be a lot of people, and that was the reason he choose to attack Akihabara. He told police that he parked a rented truck near the crime scene and waited. He admits,

I traveled to Akihabara from Shizuoka to kill people. Anybody was OK. I was tired of life. I knew that the streets would be crowded after the pedestrian paradise. I wanted to cause an incident in Akihabara as I had visited there many times.

He also revealed that it was indeed him that posted the message at 11:45am on a mobile messaging board saying “I have arrived in Akihabara”. At 12:30pm he posted “It’s about time.” He then drove the truck into the crowd. He admits erasing the messages before the incident because he didn’t want to cause trouble to those around me. That makes you think others knew about the incident and did nothing to stop it.

3 of the victims were killed by the truck, and 4 were stabbed to death. Tomohiro told investigators that when he arrived at work, he noticed that his work clothes were missing. He said that he thought he had been fired. This may have helped spark his rage.

Sources:

• Missing work clothes at factory may have sparked killings
• Death toll in Akihabara rises
• Fuji TV focus on killers love of anime and doujnshi
• Suspect waited for crowds of people
• Tomohiro Kato cries during interrogation
• Tomohiro Kato’s messages from his mobile phone
• I will kill people in Akihabara