Photo/Illutration Ground Self-Defense Force members gather outside the Hino basic firing range in Gifu on June 14 after two officers were killed and another injured. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

A cadet accused of killing two of his Ground Self-Defense Force superiors with an automatic rifle told investigators he fired a second shot into the back of a senior officer who was apparently slumped face-down with a bullet wound, sources said.

Investigators at Gifu prefectural police and the GSDF’s military police believe the 18-year-old suspect set out to kill Master Sgt. Yasuchika Kikumatsu, 52.

Kikumatsu and Sgt. Kosuke Yashiro, 25, were fatally shot while a live-firing exercise was being held at the GSDF’s Hino basic firing range in Gifu on June 14. Sgt. Yusuke Hara, 25, suffered serious leg injuries.

The second shot that killed Kikumatsu passed through his body from the back to the chest, according to the sources. The first shot took him from the front, but not in his chest.

Immediately after he was arrested, the cadet said he fired the second shot at “the back of the fallen officer who was in charge of bullets,” the sources said.

The suspect also told investigators he pulled the trigger while pointing his rifle at Yashiro’s upper body, the sources said.

Investigators believe that strongly suggests his intent to kill Yashiro, although the cadet has denied this was so.

The cadet has said he tried to aim at Yashiro’s leg, but the bullet caught him around the side of his body, the sources said.

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