Video footage from cameras mounted in front of JR Nagano Station shows the suspect in the stabbing attack scoping out the area around the station an hour before the crime. (Provided by INC Nagano Cable TV and Nagano prefectural police)

Photo/Illutration The suspect in the stabbings in front of JR Nagano Station on Jan. 22 (Provided by Nagano prefectural police)

NAGANO--Prefectural police here say the perpetrator of an apparent random fatal stabbing attack may have spent an hour looking for victims before carrying out the crime.

The highly publicized early evening incident in front of JR Nagano Station on Jan. 22 left city resident Hiroyoshi Maruyama dead and two others injured.

The autopsy on the 49-year-old company employee found two stab wounds, one to his chest that reached his heart and another in his back. Maruyama died from loss of blood.

Another man suffered serious injuries. A woman had lighter injuries. Both were attacked from behind, so neither saw the culprit’s face, according to investigative sources.

But security camera footage from around the station shows the suspect walking around the area for about an hour before the crime, the sources said.

The Asahi Shimbun obtained video from a camera in front of the station which shows a middle-aged bearded man wearing glasses standing near the crime scene at 7:48 p.m. He then walks away before again stopping and moving his hands.

The camera shows ambulances arriving at the scene at 8:15 p.m. and rescue workers treating the victims near the entrance to the station.

Nagano police also obtained the footage, which is being closely examined.

According to the Nagano city board of education, about 2,800 children of elementary and junior high school age, or about 10 percent of the total in the city, decided not to go to school on Jan. 23 because they were afraid. Around 2,000 children did not go to school on Jan. 24.

(This article was written by Ryo Suganuma and Fumiko Takaki.)

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