NAGOYA -- A police sergeant tried to cover up an investigation blunder after he and his colleagues gave a kerosene-soaked man a lighter for a cigarette during questioning, and the man fatally set himself alight, investigators said.
A 54-year-old sergeant at Atsuta Police Station in Aichi Prefecture has admitted to having taken away the lighter and an ashtray from the interrogation room and hiding them right after the fatal fire.
Aichi Prefectural Police sent papers accusing the sergeant, as well as two senior officers aged 28 and 25 and a 24-year-old officer who brought the lighter into the interrogation room, of professional negligence resulting in death.
"I thought it would not look good if it turned out that we let the man smoke inside the interrogation room, as smoking is prohibited," the sergeant told investigators in admitting to the allegations.
The four officers took custody of Hifumi Kubota, 45, an unemployed man from Nagoya, late at night on May 10 after he was found drunk and had soaked himself in kerosene, according to local police.
The officers questioned Kubota at their police station from around 11:15 p.m. to 12:15 a.m. the following day.
When the officers tried to have Kubota undergo a sobriety test, he demanded that he be allowed to smoke a cigarette. "I'll agree if you let me smoke," he was quoted as telling the officers.
The policemen then brought in a cigarette, a lighter and an ashtray while neglecting to watch over Kubota, investigators said. Kubota lit the lighter and subsequently caught fire.
After the incident, it emerged that the lighter and the ashtray had disappeared from the interrogation room.
One of the three policemen, who were inside the interrogation room, initially told police, "We don't know what happened to them (the lighter and the ashtray)." However, it turned out later that the 54-year-old sergeant had taken away the objects from the room after the incident and hid them in the kitchen at the police station.
The ashtray was later discovered, but the lighter has reportedly not turned up yet, according to police. Investigators suspect that a third person unaware of the circumstances may have taken the lighter.
The three policemen told investigators that they didn't see how the fire started, but a police experiment proved that clothes would not catch fire from a cigarette flame alone. Aichi Prefectural Police have determined that Kubota's clothes caught fire directly from the lighter.
熱田署取調室焼死：巡査部長「ライター隠した」 発覚恐れ
愛知県警熱田署で５月、酔って保護された名古屋市熱田区の無職、久保田一二三（ひふみ）さん（当時４５歳）が取調室で焼死した事件で、同署地域課の巡査部長（５４）が県警の調べに対し、出火直後に取調室からライターと灰皿を持ち出して隠したことを認めていることが３日、分かった。巡査部長は「禁煙の取調室でたばこを吸わせたことが発覚するとまずいと思った」などと話しているという。県警は４日にもこの巡査部長ら署員４人を業務上過失致死容疑で書類送検する。
ほかに書類送検されるのは、取調室にいた２８歳と２５歳の巡査長と、室内にライターを持ち込んだ巡査（２４）の３人。
県警刑事総務課などの調べでは、４人は５月１０日午後１１時１５分から１１日午前０時１５分ごろにかけて、酔って自ら灯油を浴びた久保田さんを保護して同署取調室で聴取。飲酒検知をしようとしたところ「たばこを吸わせてくれれば応じる」と要求されたため、たばこ、ライター、灰皿を用意したうえ監視を怠り、久保田さんにライターを使わせ焼死させた疑い。
事件後、取調室からライターと灰皿がなくなっていることが判明。取調室にいた３人は当初、県警の調べに「どうなったか分からない」と話していたが、その後、巡査部長が自分で持ち出し、署の炊事場に隠したことを認めたという。灰皿は見つかったが、ライターはいまだに見つかっていないといい、事情を知らない第三者がさらに別の場所に持ち去った可能性もある。
一方、３人は「どのように出火したか見ていない」と話しているが、再現実験でたばこの火では衣類に引火しないことが判明。県警はライターの火が直接衣類に引火したと断定した。【飯田和樹、福島祥】
July 4th, 2008
Mainichi Newspaper
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