Gunman opens fire on shoots himself after killing 2, wounding 1 at a bar in western Japan

Gunman kills 2, wounds 1 in Japanese bar shooting

TOKYO — A man opened fire at a bar in western Japan on Tuesday, killing two people and wounding one seriously before taking his own life.

Guns are strictly controlled in Japan, and shootings are rare. When such attacks do occur, they are often linked to gangsters known as yakuza.

Police in Habikino City in Osaka prefecture were investigating the gunman’s motive, police official Mitsuyuki Oda said. The Kyodo News agency said the gunman was a city employee and could have been targeting his mother-in-law as a result of a family dispute. Police are trying to confirm if an elderly women who was killed was a relative of the gunman.

Both the elderly woman and a man in his 20s were pronounced dead at a hospital. A man in his 50s is in critical condition, Oda said.

Oda said the gunman — identified as 49-year-old Yasuhisa Sugiura — was also pronounced dead at the hospital.