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Suspected robber shoots self after standoff with police in Saitama

Tuesday, 03 June 2008

KAWAGOE, Saitama -- A suspected robber who holed himself up in a car after one of two men in the vehicle fired a shot at a police officer in the early hours of Tuesday was arrested later in the day after he shot himself, police said.

The man, identified as Ken Kaneko, 55, was rushed to a hospital where he was confirmed dead.

At around 1:25 a.m. on Tuesday, police officers investigating a pachinko parlor robbery case approached the car stopped at a red light on Route 16 in Kawagoe in a bid to question the driver when a man sitting next to the driver suddenly fired a shot. The car then sped off.

About 90 minutes later, the officers found the vehicle in a parking lot about two kilometers away from the scene, and arrested one of the men -- Shinichi Hasebe, 43, a jobless man of no fixed address -- after he got out of the vehicle.

Kaneko holed himself up in the car while holding the gun. Police evacuated about 130 households in the neighborhood, while a local elementary school and a junior high school were forced to close on Tuesday.

At around 11:40 a.m., Kaneko shot himself in the head in a suicide bid. Police officers arrested him for violating the Firearms and Swords Control Law and transported him to a local hospital where doctors pronounced him dead a 1:30 p.m.

Local police are investigating a possible link between the incident and a robbery case in which two gunmen bound seven employees of a pachinko parlor in Konosu at around 12:35 a.m. and stole about 6 million yen before fleeing.

The officers spotted the car that closely resembled a vehicle that the robbers used to flee the scene in an attempt to question those in the vehicle when the passenger fired a shot.

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