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Kyota Hattori: Man dressed as joker stabs 17 people on train as he wants death penalty

According to a video posted on social media by a witness, Hattori sat down and smoked a cigarette while waiting for police to arrest him for the crime

TOKYO: A man, dressed in a Joker costume, brandished a knife and attacked at least 17 people on a commuter train in Chofu City, Tokyo, on Sunday, October 31. According to reports, he also sprayed acid before starting a fire in the coach. Panicked passengers tried to escape from the train, some even jumped out of the windows, according to witnesses and police. 

In the recent past, another incident of a victim being attacked on public transport went viral. New York City resident Griffin Kinard attacked a woman on a subway who asked him to "take a chill pill." A TikTok user shared a video of this tragedy with a text overlay that read, "This man was already tight off life when he came in the cart telling ppl to GTFO of him and his kids way. All she said was he needs a chill pill & his kids repeated it to him and it just went up from there." In another incident, a man traveling 1st class on American Airlines broke a female attendant's nose by punching her twice on the face after refusing to comply with the mask mandate. A racist Florida man yelled the N-word and physically attacked staff at a Miami airport, the whole tirade was captured on a video that went viral. 

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Kyota Hattori, 24, wanted to kill people and get death penalty

The attacker was identified as 24-year-old Kyota Hattori. While three were critically injured, authorities said not all of them were stabbed and most of the injuries were not serious. Hattori's motive behind carrying out the attack was not immediately known. According to a video posted on social media by a witness, Hattori sat down and smoked a cigarette while waiting for police to arrest him for the crime. He was investigated on suspicion of attempted murder, the Tokyo metropolitan police department said. 

Investigating authorities later reported that he told them he wanted to kill people and get the death penalty. Nippon Television said he used an earlier train stabbing case as inspiration for carrying out the crime. Police officials said the attack happened inside the Keio train near the Kokuryo station. A number of firefighters, police officials, and paramedics were on the scene rescuing the passengers, most of whom had escaped through train windows and were further injured, according to reports. One of the videos showed passengers running from a coach that was up in flames. Hattori reportedly poured a liquid that looked like oil from a plastic bottle in the coach and started the fire which partially burned the seats. 

According to NPR, this is the second knife-involving incident on a Tokyo train in the past three months. In August, a day before the Tokyo Olympics closing ceremony, a 36-year-old man stabbed 10 passengers on a commuter train. He later told police he wanted to attack women who looked happy.