My son gets more excited everyday as he is turning 1st grader this coming April. But as he gets enthusiastic, I get scared. This latest news is one reason…it happened a few miles away from where we live.
UBE, Yamaguchi — A man in his 20s has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder over a street assault on an elementary school girl, police said.
Masahiro Yamada, 23, an unemployed resident of Ube, stands accused of slashing an 8-year-old girl in the face and neck with a weapon believed to be a knife more than 10 times at around 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 24 on a street near Shinkawa Eki. The second grader at elementary school, who was on her way home from school at the time of the incident, sustained serious injuries expected to take more than a month to heal.
“I don’t know the girl personally. I have no idea. I’ve never stabbed or slashed anyone,” Yamada, who has reportedly denied the allegations, was quoted as telling investigators.
Yamada’s apartment, where he was living with his mother and another family member, is located about 100 meters south of the crime scene. According to police, the 23-year-old is answering investigators’ questions, but keeps changing the subject when asked about the incident. The girl’s parents reportedly told police that they are unfamiliar with Yamada’s name.
The girl was found collapsed on her stomach on the ground with her upper body covered with a black plastic bag. After receiving a reported sighting of a plump man wearing a whitish jacket, who appeared to be in his 20s and around 165 centimeters tall, leaving the incident scene, police made a composite sketch of him. As Yamada resembled the man, police started questioning the 23-year-old on a voluntary basis on the morning of Jan. 25.
Later in the day, police raided Yamada’s home and seized some 550 items including several knives. Police will pursue the investigation as there is a possibility that at least one of the knives was used in the crime.
The streets everywhere in the world today are not safe anymore. Some people grew up unguided by anyone. Let’s just say that a child belongs to a good family, and he is not a typical street kid destined to become a vagabond. The worst a typical unguided child could experience is his exposure to the open media whether from the internet or any printouts he could find on the streets. No one knows whether it contains vital lessons related to life or something offensive which the young mind could not understand at all. The good family considers him a goody-goody, not knowing what is really in his mind. Nobody talks to the child as a sort of a confidant. His family just let him go through life until he finish college so that he can have his own job and eventually live his own life.
There’s an important question. What are the things that had been in his mind? Now, this question really matters.
I believe it should start with the caring family, because it’s hard to catch them when they are out there as fugitives. Right from the very start, children should be closely monitored. A small mistake should be corrected. They should be loved not only through financial support but also through the tough love of corrections. Media in the home should be wholesome. Talk to them about everything on what they have experienced from school to a petty fight with a friend. Be sensitive to their conditions and vital needs. Say to them, “I love you.”
Criminals today are hard to catch. Local government and families should be more vigilant with these unpredictable delinquent misfits.
Street kids are not only the potential menace of society but also the unguided kids belonging to a family.