On 14 December 2007, a gunman opened fire in a

gym A gym, short for gymnasium (: gymnasiums or gymnasia), is an indoor venue for exercise and sports. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasion". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learn ...

Sasebo is a core city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. It is the second-largest city in Nagasaki Prefecture, after its capital, Nagasaki. , the city had an estimated population of 230,873 in 102,670 households, and a population density of 540 per ...

Nagasaki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan, mainly located on the island of Kyūshū, although it also includes a number of islands off Kyūshū's northwest coast - including Tsushima and Iki. Nagasaki Prefecture has a population of 1,246,4 ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, killing two people and wounding six others, among them two children. 37-year-old Masayoshi Magome (1970 – 14 December 2007), the shooter and a longtime resident of Sasebo, was found dead in a nearby

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

the following day, having apparently died by suicide.

Attack

At around 7:00 p.m. in local time, a masked man dressed in

camouflaged Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...

clothing and armed with a

Beretta AL391 The Beretta AL391 is a semi-automatic shotgun. It is manufactured, marketed, and distributed by Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta, in Gardone Val Trompia, Italy. The AL391 is most often used for hunting birds, and for clay target games such as ...

shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, peppergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which discharges numerous small ...

opened fire in the Renaissance Sports Club during a swimming class, firing a total of ten shots. A 26-year-old woman, swimming instructor Mai Kuramoto, died at the scene, and a critically wounded 36-year-old man, fishing equipment maker Yuji Fujimoto, later died at the hospital. Another six people were injured, two of them girls aged 9 and 10. The gunman briefly held remaining gym-goers hostage before fleeing.

Aftermath

The prefectural police departments of Nagasaki and neighboring

Fukuoka is the List of Japanese cities by population, sixth-largest city in Japan and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancient times. ...

deployed the Special Assault Team shortly after the incident. At 1:00 a.m., the perpetrator's car was found parked outside a Catholic church near the gym where the shooting took place. At 6:00 a.m., a gunshot was heard inside, and at 7:30 a.m. his body was found. The perpetrator, Masayoshi Magome (馬込政義), was a 37-year-old unemployed man who lived with his parents and had a history of

mental illness A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is ...

. His family was

but he did not attend church services regularly. Investigators claimed that Magome was friends with Kuramoto and Fujimoto, the two people killed, and often ate at their homes. He had a permit for three shotguns and an

air gun An air gun or airgun is a gun that uses energy from compressed air or other gases that are mechanically pressurized and then released to propel and accelerate projectiles, similar to the principle of the primitive blowgun. This is in contr ...

. The police allegedly received several complaints from Magome's neighbors that he roamed the city while carrying his guns. Due to his death, prosecutors dropped the case against Magome and ceased investigations in March 2008. His motive was presumed to be "despair over mounting debts".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sasebo shooting, 2007 Mass shootings in Japan 2007 murders in Japan 2007 mass shootings in Asia December 2007 in Japan Sasebo Mass shootings involving shotguns