Four American teenagers, all children of U.S. military personnel, have been arrested on charges of attempted murder after a woman was knocked off her motorbike with rope strung across two poles, Japanese police said.
An 18-year-old man, a 17-year-old girl and two 15-year-old boys were taken into custody on Saturday, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said. They are accused of causing a severe head injury to a 23-year-old restaurant employee by stringing a rope between poles across a road.
U.S. Forces Japan was informed of the August incident in late October, a public information officer said. There was no clear explanation for the delay in the handover of the suspects to police, other than it involved rules between Washington and Tokyo covering U.S. forces and their dependents in Japan.
The U.S. military presence and impact on Japanese residents have been a thorny issue over the years. |