Japan police chief to resign over Abe shooting, citing 'fresh start'

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s Nationwide Police Agency chief said on Thursday he will resign to take responsibility for the killing of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, citing the need for a “fresh start” for your organisation and its security duties.

Itaru Nakamura is the most senior public to step straight down in connection with Abe’s killing at a campaign move in the western city of Nara on July 8, where specialists have said safety was seriously problematic.

“In the process of confirming our new safety plan, we have visit realise that our protection duties would need a brand new start, ” Nakamura told a news conference.

“To mark our own fresh start with a brand new security plan, it is common for us to build a new organization. ”

Security within Nara on the day from the shooting had been widely seen as insufficient, experts have said.

Bodyguards might have saved Abe simply by shielding him or even pulled him from your line of fire within the 2 . 5 seconds between a missed first shot and the second, fatal round of gunfire, 8 security experts who else reviewed the footage have told Reuters.

Nara police chief Tomoaki Onizuka also resigned.

“As the chief of police with protection responsibility in this prefecture, I am painfully aware of my responsibility regarding causing a serious circumstance, ” he informed a news meeting.

Japan officials, including Primary Minister Fumio Kishida, have acknowledged defects in the security around Abe’s appearance at the election campaign occasion.

The National Police Agency previously told Reuters the killing had been the result of police faltering to fulfil their responsibility, adding that it had set up the team to review protection and protection measures and develop preventive steps.

The suspected assassin, arrested at the picture moments after the capturing, is undergoing psychiatric evaluation, Japanese mass media reported last month.

(Reporting by Sakura Murakami, Mariko Katsumura, Dave Dolan plus Satoshi Sugiyama; Composing by Elaine Lies; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel)