General News

MPD Riot Squad Officer Dies in Apparent Suicide in Prime Minister’s Office Restroom

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
The Prime Minister’s Office in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo

The Yomiuri Shimbun

11:11 JST, May 5, 2023

A Metropolitan Police Department officer has died in an apparent suicide after being found bleeding on the floor of a restroom stall on the first floor of the Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo early Friday morning.

The officer,25, a member of the MPD’s riot squad, is believed to have committed suicide using his department-issued service revolver at about 4:40 a.m. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

According to a senior officer at the Kojimachi Police Station, a colleague was in the restroom of the building in Chiyoda Ward at the time and said he heard a shot fired.

He checked on the officer in the stall and found him bleeding on the floor. The gun was found near the collapsed officer.