JAKARTA - An investigative source said the shooter that killed former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was looking for a way to make homemade weapons from YouTube, Sunday.
The source also said the suspect, known as Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, had stated that he had tested homemade weapons at a facility connected to a religious group he despised.
Several homemade weapons similar to the one used to kill Abe were confiscated from Yamagami's home and the prefectural police said he appeared to have checked YouTube in repeated attempts to produce a firearm, Kyodo News reported July 11.
The source also said the gun Yamagami made to shoot Abe was "designed to fire six projectiles at once." Consisting of two metal pipes held together with tape and using projectiles housed in small plastic shells fired from both barrels, the weapon was comparable to a rifle, they said.
Sources also said several wooden planks, each measuring about 1 square meter, with holes apparently made during weapons testing were found in Yamagami's car.
The suspect said the aluminum-coated tray found in the vehicle was used to "dry the gunpowder," according to the source. Yamagami was also quoted as saying that he had tried making a bomb and that he appeared to have gone through a trial and error process to come up with such a device.
Nara Prefectural Police believe he was testing the weapon before the planned attack. Yamagami shot dead 67-year-old Abe on Friday as he was delivering a speech outside a train station in the western Japanese city of Nara, just two days before voters cast ballots in upper house elections.
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Yamagami has denied that the shooting was politically motivated, telling police he chose to make an attempt on the life of the former Liberal Democratic Party leader, after initially planning to target an executive of the group.
It is known that Shinzo Abe died of blood loss, with an autopsy determining that he had two gunshot wounds, one in his left upper arm and one in his neck.
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