Photo/Illutration The Tsukui Yamayurien care home for disabled people in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, after the fatal attack on July 26, 2016 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

YOKOHAMA--A mass-murder suspect apologized to family members of victims in the 2016 stabbing rampage at a care facility, but he added to their pain by repeating his discriminatory remarks about disabled people.

At the 10th hearing of the trial of Satoshi Uematsu, 30, at the Yokohama District Court on Feb. 5, the family members were allowed to directly ask questions to the defendant about the attack at the Tsukui Yamayurien care facility in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, that killed 19 disabled people and injured 26.

A 61-year-old man whose 60-year-old sister was among those who died opened the questioning by asking the defendant: “I believe this trial is a painful one. What do you think?”

Uematsu replied, “I think so.”

The man continued: “What was on your mind when you surrendered to police?”

Uematsu said: “I was exhausted. I was very intense and focused that day and I was really tired.”

Uematsu has admitted to committing the stabbing rampage, but his lawyers have argued that he cannot be held responsible for his actions because of his mental state at the time.

He sometimes faltered in his speech on Feb. 5, but he continued answering questions.

The man told Uematsu: “I was in a state of numbness all day that day. I couldn’t stop crying when I saw (my dead sister).”

Struggling through tears, he asked Uematsu to detail the circumstances at the time of the attack and asked how his sister was in her final moments.

“I am sorry, but I didn’t see how (she) died,” Uematsu responded.

The man asked, “Why did you kill?”

Uematsu, a former worker at Tsukui Yamayurien, then repeated the offensive remarks about disabled people he has made since his arrest, such as, “People who cannot communicate are a nuisance to society.”

The man posing the questions has visited a detention facility more than 10 times to meet with Uematsu to find out what drove him to go on the stabbing spree and kill his sister.

He said he stood in the courtroom on Feb. 5, hoping that Uematsu would “at least face up to those deaths.”

But after hearing the defendant’s remarks about disabled people, the man ended his questions by saying, “This is getting really painful.”

Takashi Ono, the 76-year-old father of Kazuya, 46, who was seriously injured in the attack, took over the questioning.

He said to Uematsu, “I want you to make an apology in your own words.”

Uematsu said out loud, “I am awfully sorry,” and he bowed.

Ono pressed the defendant by saying, “I accept your heart, but I cannot forgive you.”

“It can’t be helped, I think,” the defendant replied.

According to the indictment, Uematsu broke into the care facility early in the morning of July 26, 2016, carrying multiple knives. He tied up facility workers and then slashed and stabbed the disabled residents in their necks and other body parts.

(This article was written by Mirei Jinguji and Hirohisa Yamashita.)

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