Tetsuya Yamagami, a navy veteran, allegedly shot former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe when the politician was speaking at a rally in the city of Nara at about 11:30 AM local time. The Liberal Democratic Party leader reportedly died in the hospital of excessive blood loss. 

Also read: Shinzo Abe death: Possible explosives found in suspect’s home

Abe, 67, was shot from behind minutes after he started his speech in Nara. He was airlifted to a hospital for emergency treatment but was not breathing and his heart had stopped. The politician had  sustained wounds to the front of his neck, damage to the heart and a major artery, Hidetaka Fukushima, the head of emergency services at Nara Medical University Hospital said, as per the Japan Times report. 

Yamagami was immediately arrested for attempted murder. He reportedly used a  home-made shotgun to assasinate Abe. Police said that he has confessed revealing that he wanted to kill the politician because he was ‘dissatisfied’ with him.

Also read: Shinzo Abe death: Why Tetsuya Yamagami, a navy veteran, shot ex-Japanese PM

However, Abe might not have been his target. Tetsuya Yamagami, as per local media reports, told police that he intended to target a senior official of a religious group. 

During questioning, he cited the name of a specific religious group and said, “I intended to target this senior official (of the group).” Authorities are yet to make an official statement. 

Ministry of Defense officials, as per the NHK report, confirmed that the suspect had been in the Maritime Self-Defense Force for three years from 2002 to 2005. The police have searched his Nara home and found several possible explosives. Yamagami said that he had “manufactured multiple pistols and explosives so far.”

Also read: Shinzo Abe shooting: A look at former Japanese PM controversy

Yamagami, as per reports, confessed: “I was dissatisfied with former Prime Minister Abe and aimed to kill him. It is not a grudge against the former Prime Minister’s political beliefs.”

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Cabinet ministers hastily returned to Tokyo from campaign events around the country after the shooting, which he called “dastardly and barbaric.” He pledged to carry out Sunday’s parliamentary elections as planned.