In the Japanese city of Nara on July 8th 2022 at 5:00 pm EST, 61 year old Shinzo Abe was shot dead in the back with a homemade zip gun by 41 year old navy veteran Tetsuya Yamagami. Here are the facts we know as of now.
Shinzo Abe, former Japanese prime minister, was shot twice in the chest with a homemade gun while giving a speech at a campaign event. He was rushed to the hospital where a medical team of 20 tried to save him, but reported back saying that his heartbeat had stopped by the time had gotten to the hospital. Doctors say that the bullet wounds were at the upper chest and the neck, reaching as deep as his heart.
The shooter of this assassination, Testuya Yamagami, was tackled shortly after the two shots were fired. Police says that his motives were religious. He claims that his mother had become bankrupt after donating to a currently unnamed religious organization that Prime minister Abe was allegedly associated with, according to police.
(Figure 1) Homemade zipgun used to assassinate Shinzo Abe (Source: New York post)
A raid of Yamagami's house shows that he had created several zip guns. Currently, we do not know the motives for the creations of these guns nor do we know the exact amount of how many were built.
(Figure 2) 9 barrel gun found in Yamagami's home (Source: New York post)
(Figure 3) 5 barrel gun found in Yamagami's home. (Source: New York post)
The guns are observed to have worked somewhat similarly to a Civil-war era musket with the gunpowder being poured in separately to the ammunition. "...it is likely that the weapon was a smoothbore design," Says N.R Jenzen-Jones, an arms and munitions intelligence specialist. Jenzen-Jones adds onto it saying, "The significant plumes of smoke generated when the weapon was fired indicate that it does not make use of commercial small arms ammunition, and may instead use blackpowder or an alternative propellant."
According to investigators, the pistol used to shoot Abe was two iron pipes that were taped together. They also say they have found guns that had 3 barrels, 5 barrels, and 6 barrels, two of which are yet to be publicly shown.
(Figure 4) Shows the mechanisms of the gun, showing that the ammunition shoots 6 bullets at once in a capsule
Stay tuned for further news on this matter.
Very good report. better than cnn