Japan. Shinzo Abe, former prime minister and sitting member of the House of Representatives, is assassinated while speaking at a political event outside Yamato-Saidaiji Station in Nara, Nara Prefecture. While giving a campaign speech for a Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) candidate, Abe is shot from behind at close range by a man with a homemade firearm. He is transported by medical helicopter to Nara Medical University Hospital, where he is pronounced dead. The assassin, Tetsuya Yamagami, is immediately arrested at the scene for attempted murder, later revised to murder charges after Abe’s death. Yamagami told investigators that he harbored a grudge against the Unification Church for his mother’s failure and that he shot Abe believing he was close to the group. He accused Abe of spreading the church’s influence in Japan.
