Police in Saitama Prefecture are hunting for a gunman after a taxi driver was shot and wounded in the prefecture’s Kawaguchi city late Wednesday night.
The suspect, described as a man in his 50s or 60s, was wearing a black cap, glasses, a white mask, a black short-sleeved shirt and long pants.
He had gotten into the taxi near Akabane Station in Tokyo’s Kita Ward and fired shots from the backseat as he got out in Kawaguchi.
According to prefectural police, around 11:40 p.m., the man threatened the 72-year-old male driver, demanded money, then fired what appeared to be a gun and fled the scene.
A nearby supermarket manager called emergency services and reported the driver’s injuries. Local residents also reported hearing sounds that sounded like fireworks and seeing the man hitting the door from the cabin.
According to provincial police, the driver suffered abdominal injuries and was taken to hospital. He is seriously injured; he has suffered organ damage that is expected to take at least four weeks to repair. However, his injuries are not life-threatening, police said.
Police are treating the incident as an attempted robbery and murder and are continuing to search for the suspect.
The incident took place about 400 meters north of Kawaguchi Station on the JR Keihin-Tohoku Line and is surrounded by apartment buildings and an elementary school.
“What scares me most is that he hasn’t been caught yet,” said a concerned mother who accompanied her first-grade son to school. “I’m going to pick up my kid after school,” she added.
Another local resident, who is 35 years old, expressed his shock, saying: “That is a street where many people live.”
Translated by The Japan Times
