Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is dead after a gunman fatally shot him during a campaign speech.
Abe, 67, the longest-serving Japanese Prime Minister, was gunned down Friday during a parliamentary campaign speech.
Abe was pronounced dead 5 hours after the shooting that took place in the City of Nara in Japan.
Japan’s current Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, also Abe’s protege, said he was speechless over the news of Abe’s death.
“This attack is an act of brutality that happened during the elections – the very foundation of our democracy – and is absolutely unforgivable,” Kishida, who struggled to keep his emotions in check, said.
According to Reuters, Abe was making a campaign speech outside a train station when two shots rang out.
“There was a loud bang and then smoke,” businessman Makoto Ichikawa, who was at the scene, told Reuters. “The first shot, no one knew what was going on, but after the second shot, what looked like special police tackled him.”
Security agents were later seen tackling a man in a grey t-shirt and beige pants, according to the Reuters report.
Police have arrested a 41-year-old man and identified the gunman as Tetsuya Yamagami, a Nara resident who held a grudge against a certain organization he believed Abe belonged to, but the grudge was not political, according to Reuters.
Reuters reported that it’s unclear whether the organization existed or the man was delusional.
Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta mourned Abe and described him as a dear friend and development ally of Kenya.
“It is utterly shocking and somewhat unbelievable to learn of the death of my friend, and one of Kenya’s foremost development ally, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in a savage shooting incident,” President Kenyatta said in a message posted on State House Twitter page.
1/4
President Uhuru Kenyatta has joined fellow world leaders in mourning Japan's former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who died today after being shot at a political campaign meeting. pic.twitter.com/LoYK4QlIBc— State House Kenya (@StateHouseKenya) July 8, 2022
US President Joe Biden expressed shock at the slaying.
“I am stunned, outraged, and deeply saddened by the news that my friend Abe Shinzo, former Prime Minister of Japan, was shot and killed while campaigning,” Biden said in a statement issued by the White House. “This is a tragedy for Japan and for all who knew him.”
Former US President Barack Obama also sent his condolences. Obama described Abe as his friend and long-time partner in Japan.
“Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to the people of Japan who are very much in our thoughts at this painful moment,” Obama said on Twitter. “I will always remember the work we did to strengthen our alliance, the moving experience of traveling to Hiroshima and Pearl Harbor together, and the grace he and his wife Akie Abe showed to me and Michelle.”
Japan has one of the world’s strictest gun laws, and political violence is rare.
Click here to read the Reuters report
Abe is also remembered for making a scowling face after a handshake with former US President Donald Trump that lasted almost 20 seconds while visiting the White House.