A Japanese court on Tuesday sentenced a 68-year-old man to life in prison for fatally shooting a doctor and attacking other medical workers before an 11-hour standoff with police at his home near Tokyo last year.
In handing down the sentence as sought by prosecutors, the Saitama District Court found that Hiroshi Watanabe had the intent to kill 44-year-old Junichi Suzuki and other staff in a shotgun attack during a home visit on Jan. 27 last year.
Presiding Judge Kenji Koike dismissed arguments by the defense that the shots were accidental or not intended to kill, saying that the close-range firing of the weapon indicated otherwise.
Saying Watanabe harbored resentment toward Suzuki and the other medical workers following the death the previous day of his mother, who had been in their care, Koike said his actions were "irrational, even in consideration of his significant sense of loss over the death of his mother."
According to the ruling, Watanabe asked seven medical workers, including Suzuki, to come to his home in Fujimino, Saitama Prefecture, to offer condolences over his mother's death.
Watanabe then shot three of them, killing Suzuki and severely injuring a physiotherapist in his 40s while shooting the third who ended up unhurt. He also sprayed another medical worker with tear gas.
He was eventually arrested after the police stormed the building following the standoff.
Prosecutors argued that Watanabe had a "strong intention to murder as many as he could" of the medical workers over his mother's death.
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