Photo/Illutration Investigators on May 27 examine the police car that was carrying two officers who were shot in Nakano, Nagano Prefecture. The May 25 attack was captured on the dashboard camera in the vehicle. (Takeshi Iwashita)

NAKANO, Nagano Prefecture--The assailant who killed two police officers here last week shot them at close range with shotgun slugs, powerful ammunition normally used to take down large animals, investigative sources said.

Takuo Ikeuchi, a 61-year-old sergeant, is believed to have died instantly from the gunshot wound on May 25.

Yoshiki Tamai, a 46-year-old inspector, was also shot in the police vehicle, but knife wounds apparently caused his death, the sources said.

Masanori Aoki, 31, has been arrested on suspicion of murdering Ikeuchi.

Two women, Yukie Murakami, 66, and Yasuko Takeuchi, 70, were also killed in the spree. They died from blood loss after being repeatedly stabbed and slashed.

Ikeuchi and Tamai of the Nakano Police Station were responding to an emergency call about a man attacking a woman.

The officers were in such a rush to get to the scene that they did not arm themselves with their handguns, according to the sources.

Ikeuchi was driving the police car while Tamai was in the front passenger’s seat.

A dashboard camera in the car recorded footage at 4:37 p.m. showing the gunman standing on the driver’s side of the vehicle and firing two shots through the window.

The assailant then circled around the back of the car to the passenger’s side, where he stabbed Tamai with a knife as the officer was trying to open the door and escape, the sources said.

The car, which had lost control after Ikeuchi was shot, rolled forward, hit a building and came to a stop.

Tamai was found lying on the ground outside the vehicle.

A judicial autopsy found no projectiles in the bodies of the two officers, indicating a through-and-through shooting, particularly in Ikeuchi's case, police said.

Immediately after the shootings, Aoki holed up in his family’s house nearby.

He fired two shots from around 7 to 8 p.m. in an apparent attempt to commit suicide, according to his mother’s explanation to police.

He surrendered to police on the morning of May 26.

Police have seized multiple knives from the family home and believe one of the blades was used in the May 25 attacks, the sources said.

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