Nagano police investigators search for clues May 27 at the site where two police officers in a police car were gunned down two days earlier. (Video footage by Kazuki Masuda)

Photo/Illutration Police escort Masanori Aoki from Nakano Police Station on May 26. (Shinnosuke Ito)

NAKANO, Nagano Prefecture--Just after 4 p.m. on May 25, a woman in her 70s living in the Ebe district here saw a familiar sight.

Yukie Murakami and Yasuko Takeuchi were going on their afternoon walk.

Thirty minutes later, life in the quiet hamlet was turned upside down.

A resident working in his garden watched in horror as Murakami tried to flee from a man who stabbed her several times. Another 63-year-old man was giving cardiopulmonary resuscitation to Murakami when a police car arrived on the scene.

The man was only a few meters away when he saw the assailant open fire on the police car with a hunting rifle.

The two police officers, Yoshiki Tamai and Takuo Ikeuchi, were killed.

Murakami, 66, and Takeuchi, 70, were later confirmed to have died of stab wounds.

The assailant, Masanori Aoki, 31, was arrested May 26 on suspicion of murder.

According to sources, he told police, “I decided to stab the woman to death because she had been badmouthing me.”

Aoki told investigators he shot the two police officers “because I assumed they would gun me down,” the sources said.

Nagano prefectural police on May 27 examined the police car left at the crime scene. Also at the scene was a 72-year-old man who witnessed the shooting. He said police combed the area the previous night as well.

The man was also working his garden on May 25 when he heard a woman screaming, “Help me!”

He saw Aoki chasing the woman while brandishing a 30-centimeter survival knife.

Aoki caught up with the woman a few meters from the man and stabbed her twice.

The man said to Aoki, “Why are you doing this?”

According to the man, Aoki replied, “I killed her because I wanted to.”

Without a mobile phone handy, the man asked a neighbor to summon the police.

The man went to get his mobile and also phoned the police.

A few minutes later a police car showed up. The officers did not appear to know where the crime scene was, so the man waved his hand to give directions.

The police car overtook Aoki and stopped in front of a warehouse. Aoki approached the car and pointed a rifle at the car window.

The man feared Aoki would shoot him, too. He convinced the neighbor giving cardiopulmonary resuscitation to the injured woman to flee, and they both left the area. Seconds later, two shots rang out.

The man now regrets not having helped the fallen women.

Aoki fled to his father’s home and holed up there for about 12 hours. Police phoned him and tried to convince him to surrender. Aoki finally did so at 4:37 a.m. on May 26.

(Hiraku Higa and Arata Mitsui contributed to this article.)

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