TSUCHIURA, Ibaraki -- A man arrested for a shopping mall rampage that killed one and injured seven on Sunday says he was originally intending to go on a killing spree at his old elementary school, police said Monday.

Masahiro Kanagawa, 24, the unemployed suspect from Tsuchiura, allegedly told investigators he planned to kill people at the Nakamura Municipal Elementary School in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki Prefecture, on March 19, but gave up on the idea, police said.

"I was planning to attack my old elementary school at first," police quoted Kanagawa as saying.

Police suspect there may have been too many people at the school when Kanagawa went there on March 19, the day of its graduation ceremony, and he could have allegedly killed 72-year-old Yoshikazu Miura on his way back from the thwarted plan.

Kanagawa is currently being held on a charge of murdering Miura on March 19 and was wanted by the police before Sunday's rampage.

Kanagawa has told investigators that he had not known Miura. Police said the suspect admits to the killing spree on Sunday. Police are trying to determine whether there was something that linked Sunday's incident with the thwarted planned attack on Nakamura Municipal Elementary School.

Police said that on the morning of March 19, Kanagawa got on to his mountain bike and rode off to his old elementary school where a graduation ceremony was being held. However, there were too many people there and his plan to unleash a rampage went unfulfilled.

"There were too many teachers and parents, so I gave up," he told the police.

Kanagawa's alleged victim from that day, Miura, lived about 200 meters east of the elementary school and his home was on the route he would have used while attending the school.

At about 9:15 a.m. on the morning of March 19, Miura's daughter heard a cry for help from the second floor of the family home and went downstairs to find her father had collapsed at the front door.

Police said it appears Miura had the misfortune to bump in to Kanagawa.

"I just wanted to see what it was like to kill. It could have been anyone," police quoted Kanagawa as telling them.

Police said that on the morning of Miura's killing, Kanagawa dumped his mountain bike at the old man's home, raced home to change clothes and then fled.

Kanagawa moved to the area in 1994 from Miyagi Prefecture because of his father's work requirements and started attending Nakamura Municipal Elementary School. He graduated from junior high and high school in the area, but had not been able to land a steady job.

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