2009-12-05

Teen children of U.S. military personnel arrested on suspicion of attempted murder

Mainichi Shimbun

Four teenage children of U.S. military personnel at the U.S. Air Force's Yokota Air Base have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, law enforcers said.

Police suspect the teens, aged between 15 and 18, were responsible for an incident on Aug. 13, in which a rope was stretched across a roadway in Musashimurayama, Tokyo, catching a woman riding a scooter and leaving her with a fractured skull.

The U.S. military had initially expressed reservations about handing over two of the teens who lived on the base, but on Friday officials told the Metropolitan Police Department that it would hand them over.

The rope had been stretched out to block the entrance of a transportation firm. At the time of the accident, one end of the rope had been untied and fastened to an electrical pole on the other side of the road.

Investigators said there were no witness reports of the teens tying the rope to the pole, but they determined that the four were involved based on footage from a security camera in the area that showed the teens immediately before the accident.

バイク女性重傷:米兵の子4人逮捕 殺人未遂容疑

 東京都武蔵村山市で今年8月、道路に張られたロープに原付きバイクの女性が引っかかり重傷を負った事件で警視庁組織犯罪対策2課は5日、米軍横田 基地に所属する米兵の子供4人(15~18歳)を殺人未遂容疑で逮捕した。米軍は同基地内に住む2人の引き渡しに難色を示していたが、4日に応じる意向を 警視庁に伝えたという。

 4人は8月13日午後11時半ごろ、武蔵村山市伊奈平の市道にロープを張り、原付きバイクで走行中の女性会社員(23)を転倒させ、頭の骨を折る 重傷を負わせた疑いが持たれている。ロープは現場付近の運送会社の正門に関係者以外が立ち入らないように張られていたもので、片方の端がほどかれ、約 6.5メートルの道路を横切るようにして向かい側の電柱に結ばれていた。

 捜査関係者によると、ロープを結ぶところを見た人はいなかったが、事件直前に近くの防犯カメラに姿が映っていたことなどから、4人が関与したと判断した。【古関俊樹、神澤龍二、山本太一】

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