18-year-old enters school, scares students with screwdriver

A young man brandishing a screwdriver entered Matsushima Elementary School premises in Naha around noon, Thursday, yelling, “I kill you” at students and teachers. However, he ran away shortly without harming anyone.

The school personnel called police who caught the man about one and half hours later. He turned out to be a 18-year-old boy who, according to police, “was intellectually challenged.”

According to a person who works at the school, the boy entered the school through a side entrance by the main gate.  At the time of the incident, there was a classroom teacher and 30 students close to the entrance. The teacher told police she tried not to excite the boy while carefully ushering the students inside the school building and then locked the entrance.

The boy moved next to the premises of a nearby preschool, but ran away as soon as he saw a male teacher.

One of the students who had been present said, “First, we thought he was someone’s parent, but then he suddenly showed a screwdriver, and we were all kind of panicked at that.”

14:55 29 Mar , 2024