Photo/Illutration The Chiba prefectural police headquarters in Chiba (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

SOSA, Chiba Prefecture--A police officer shot a man swinging a saw at him who later died in the hospital, after responding to a complaint of a noisy neighbor on the evening of Aug. 28. 

The man, who was shot in the stomach on the evening of Aug. 28, was rushed to a hospital but was pronounced dead there about three and a half hours after the shooting. 

The Chiba prefectural police said he had tried to attack the officer with the saw.

The unemployed 74-year-old man, who resides in the city, called the police at around 6:40 p.m. on Aug. 28 complaining that “the neighbor's house’ s drying machine is noisy,” according to the prefectural Sosa Police Station.

Two policemen, a senior officer and an assistant inspector, went to the house the man lodged the noise complaint against, several dozen meters from his residence, where they found a machine for drying crops was operating, they said.

While they were listening to the occupant of the house's side of the story, the complainant arrived at the house, swinging the saw, which had an approximately 30-centimeter-long blade.

The senior officer shouted at the man to "freeze!" and ordered him to drop the weapon, as he fired a warning shot in the air.

Despite the officer further warning the man that he would "shoot him" if he failed to comply, the man approached to within two meters of the officer.

He then tried to strike him in the head with the saw, leading the officer to fire a shot into his abdomen. 

"The senior policeman aimed at the man’s stomach and shot him,” said Yoshinori Takaya, the prefectural Sosa Police Station's deputy director. “It was an emergency and at the moment we think it was an appropriate response."

The police station had consulted with both neighbors over noise disputes they had with one another on four occasions since 2016 and given them advice or instructions on resolving the issue. 

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