Employee at Kanagawa Prefectural Facility for Disabled Arrested for Seriously Assaulting Male Patient, Cracking His Leg

From NHK

November 3 2023

Atsugi City, KANAGAWA Pref – A 37-year-old employee at a prefectural support facility for people with disabilities in Atsugi City, Kanagawa Prefecture, was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a male user, causing serious injuries that left his leg cracked.

The person arrested, aged 37, was a caregiver and employee of Aina Yamayurien, a prefectural support facility for people with disabilities in Atsugi City.

According to the police, at around 2:20 p.m. on November 2nd, a 29-year-old male user was pushed to the ground in the hallway of the facility, causing serious injuries that included a crack in the thigh bone of his right leg.

Another employee noticed that the male user was complaining of pain in his legs, and when he checked the footage from the camera inside the facility, he noticed that the suspect was assaulting him, so he called the police.

Upon investigation, the suspect admitted to the charges, and the police are investigating the details of the incident.

This facility is operated by Kanagawa Kyodokai, a social welfare corporation, under contract from the prefecture, but in April this year, another prefectural support facility for people with disabilities operated in Atsugi City opened a new facility to users. He received improvement guidance from the local government due to abusive behavior.

Governor Yuji Kuroiwa of Kanagawa Prefecture said, “We deeply apologize to the users who suffered damage and their families.This is a serious problem that shakes the trust in the prefecture, and we will thoroughly investigate the cause and do our best to prevent it from happening again. We will continue to work on it.’’

In addition, Kanagawa Kyokai said, “We would like to deeply apologize to the users, their families, and everyone involved.We will fully cooperate with the investigation to determine the cause, and will work to prevent something like this from happening again. I will continue to do so.”