Assassin apologizes to Nagasaki mayor for killing him

A gangster indicted for fatally shooting former Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito last April pleaded guilty and apologized to the late mayor Tuesday at his first court hearing at the Nagasaki District Court. Tetsuya Shiroo, 60, shot Ito, 61, from behind on the evening of April 17 near the mayor's election campaign office in the city of Nagasaki, according to the indictment. Ito died six and a half hours later in hospital.
"What the indictment says is correct," Shiroo told the court. "I apologize to Mayor Itcho Ito from the bottom of my heart." The trial is focused on why the defendant assaulted Ito, with whom Shiroo was not personally acquainted, and whether the shooting was premeditated. Prosecutors argue Shiroo began harboring designs against Ito around February last year, when the mayor expressed his intention to seek a fourth term, due to dissatisfaction with the city government.