Seiji Otomo

Seiji Otomo turned himself in at a police box, admitting to having run the people down with his truck, the police said.

The truck used to kill pedestrians at a shopping arcade in Sendai on April 2

The people killed were identified as Kenji Sekine, 24, Wakako Takahashi, 44, and Junko Hayashi, 42.

Otomo was quoted as telling police that he had run down the people because he had wanted to die. He said he had tried to immolate himself inside the truck by pouring kerosene on his body and setting himself alight.

Otomo entered the pedestrian-only arcade around 9 a.m. and drove frantically down the shopping lane toward the station for about 500 meters, hitting six people on the way before slamming into another truck.

The Japan Times Weekly: April 9, 2005
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