KAWAGOE, Saitama -- A suspected robber who shot himself dead on Tuesday after holing himself up in a car for more than eight hours had apparently planned to kill himself from the beginning of the standoff, investigators said.

"He appeared to have realized that he could not escape and thought he had no choice but to commit suicide," a senior investigator said.

Ken Kaneko, 55, shot himself in the head after an 8 1/2-house standoff with Saitama Prefectural Police officers at a parking lot in Kawagoe.

Officers investigating a pachinko parlor robbery that occurred in the early hours of Tuesday spotted a suspicious car at the parking lot shortly after 3 a.m.

The officers ordered Kaneko and his accomplice, 43-year-old Shinichi Hasebe, to surrender. However, they responded by firing several shots.

About 10 minutes later, one of the car's doors opened and Hasebe got out of the vehicle while crying, and handed about 5 million yen to officers. After being arrested, he told investigators that he had been ordered by Kaneko to fire shots.

Kaneko repeatedly said, "I'm finished," while pointing his gun at his own head.

He asked for a canned coffee at 5:20 a.m. When an investigator handed him the drink, the suspect hurled one of his guns and a mobile phone out of the car saying they are "presents."

Kaneko got irritated after 9 a.m. He scattered 1,000 1,000-yen notes that he is suspected of having stolen from the pachinko parlor in the robbery and hurled a lit smoke canister onto the ground. He then got out of the car and swung around one of his guns.

An investigator tried to persuade him to surrender. "You haven't hurt anybody. If you surrender, you can start over," the law enforcers said.

"You're a police officer, aren't you? Shoot me!" Kaneko demanded.

After returning to the car, Kaneko suddenly shot the temple area of his head at around 11:42 a.m. as investigators began to consider storming the car to arrest him.

Copyright 2005-2006 THE MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS. All rights reserved. Mainichi features the best news in Japan, current news in Japan, Japan news in English, Japan business news, Tokyo Japan news, and Japan entertainment news. Mainichi News is syndicated in accordance with editorial regulations: personal and noncommercial purposes.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Write comment

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (Registered users only)

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment