TOKYO, JAPAN — A 24-year-old, dressed as Batman’s The Joker, stabbed and injured 17 people while riding on a train filled with people beginning their Halloween night out. Witnesses say the suspect also spread a liquid around the train and started a fire.
“I thought it was a Halloween stunt,” one witness told a local newspaper. “Then, I saw a man walking this way, slowly waving a long knife.” There was blood on the knife, he said.
Man with a knife set fire on a train in Tokyo pic.twitter.com/BnEpyEyyFv
— penanam anggur 2.0 (@anthraxxx781) October 31, 2021
While it’s been our policy not to show the faces or share the names of these suspects, this one is an exception because of how bizarre this incident is. The suspect can be seen casually smoking a cigarette on the train after the attack, seemingly waiting for police to arrive. This is what crazy looks like, and it can be dead calm.
🚨 | NEW: The alleged attacker in Japan, in a “Joker” costume. Sitting and casually smoking after stabbing and spraying hydrochloric acid on passengers on a train in Tokyo, and then setting everything on fire
— News For All (@NewsForAllUK) October 31, 2021
pic.twitter.com/vyncsCxdkp
Numerous witnesses described their thoughts at the beginning of the attack, thinking that it was all just a Halloween prank. When they realized that an actual attack was happening, everyone began running through the train in an effort to distance themselves from the suspect.
Reports have stated that the suspect told authorities that he “wanted to kill people so he could be sentenced to death”.
A place that I’d want to have something to defend myself with would be a location that I can’t easily escape from. Example: A train. There will come a point where you can go no further while the train is moving, and that means you run a high risk of eventually being cornered. I don’t know about you, but my firearm would come in quite handy in a situation like this.
