A 34-year-old man of no stated occupation has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after allegedly stabbing a housemate in a Tokyo apartment, the Metropolitan Police Department said on Thursday. He was found on a street in Osaka Prefecture on Monday and taken into custody.
The man, who lives in Zoshigaya 3-chome in Toshima Ward, told police he had not meant to kill anyone, according to the announcement. The Metropolitan Police had placed him on a wanted list after the incident.
Police say the attack happened at around 7:40 a.m. on October 2, in a room of the apartment building where the two men lived. The suspect is accused of strangling the man, in his 20s, with both hands and stabbing him in the left side of the abdomen with a fruit knife.
Dispute over living arrangements
The two men argued on the evening of October 1 over their shared living arrangements, according to the Mejiro police station. Investigators believe the suspect gave the other man sleeping pills, bound him with plastic cable ties while he slept, and then strangled him.
“There is no mistake that I bound him with cable ties and strangled him. He struggled, so I picked up a fruit knife to threaten him, and it ended up going in.”the suspect, in his statement to police, according to the announcement
Officers from the Osaka prefectural police spotted the man on a street in Osaka Prefecture on November 2 and detained him. The Metropolitan Police Department announced his arrest the same day he was taken into custody.