"Watashi Wa Kira Dess" murderers caught...
Police have arrested and charged four young men for the gory, [Death Note] manga-inspired murder of a man three years ago whose sliced remains were found in a Brussels park, Belgian prosecutors say.
After a three-year search for the perpetrators of the gruesome killing, four men aged between 22 and 24 were arrested on Friday in Brussels, three charged with the murder and one for failing to assist a person in danger, said a spokesman for Brussels prosecutors, Jean-Marc Meilleur.
Three of the suspects confessed but one denied involvement, he said.
"We know they're all manga fans," said Meilleur, adding that none of the suspects had a criminal record.
On September 28, 2007, two thighs and a lower abdomen were found by a passer-by between two park benches in the Duden park in a south-west Brussels suburb.
Two sheets of paper nearby were scrawled with a message in Japanese, but written in Latin letters, saying: "Watashi Wa Kira Dess", meaning "I am Kira", the hero of a Japanese manga comic, Death Note.
The comic book tells the story of justice-seeking Kira, who eliminates criminals by writing their name on a list, which leads to their death.
A little further away from the victim's remains, police found a Japanese character drawn in the grass with grains of rice.
The suspects, Meilleur said, "explained that the victim, whose name they did not know, lived with them.
"An argument broke out and they asked him to leave but he didn't want to.
"There was a fight, which was the cause of death."
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It's so sick that people would do this in the first place, and associating your crime with a popular manga is really shameful. I'm glad they were caught. To the public in that area, I'm sure it looks like Death Note rallies its fans to violence and glorifies killing. Which is ridiculous, because even if Kira is portrayed sympathetically at times and the narration doesn't really "take sides", Light is certainly not written to be totally heroic, but rather quite villainous... At best he's an anti-hero? And regardless, Kira doesn't support murder, he kills the people who do crimes like these? gah, not that I should bother wasting my time justifying on the many levels these men were sick and wrong, I would just hate to see the manga disregarded as something violent and inappropriate.
At any rate, I hope it's obvious enough that these men were killers first, and after the fact thought to have fun with the manga association. *shudder* Thank goodness this is over, at least.
After a three-year search for the perpetrators of the gruesome killing, four men aged between 22 and 24 were arrested on Friday in Brussels, three charged with the murder and one for failing to assist a person in danger, said a spokesman for Brussels prosecutors, Jean-Marc Meilleur.
Three of the suspects confessed but one denied involvement, he said.
"We know they're all manga fans," said Meilleur, adding that none of the suspects had a criminal record.
On September 28, 2007, two thighs and a lower abdomen were found by a passer-by between two park benches in the Duden park in a south-west Brussels suburb.
Two sheets of paper nearby were scrawled with a message in Japanese, but written in Latin letters, saying: "Watashi Wa Kira Dess", meaning "I am Kira", the hero of a Japanese manga comic, Death Note.
The comic book tells the story of justice-seeking Kira, who eliminates criminals by writing their name on a list, which leads to their death.
A little further away from the victim's remains, police found a Japanese character drawn in the grass with grains of rice.
The suspects, Meilleur said, "explained that the victim, whose name they did not know, lived with them.
"An argument broke out and they asked him to leave but he didn't want to.
"There was a fight, which was the cause of death."
Source
--
It's so sick that people would do this in the first place, and associating your crime with a popular manga is really shameful. I'm glad they were caught. To the public in that area, I'm sure it looks like Death Note rallies its fans to violence and glorifies killing. Which is ridiculous, because even if Kira is portrayed sympathetically at times and the narration doesn't really "take sides", Light is certainly not written to be totally heroic, but rather quite villainous... At best he's an anti-hero? And regardless, Kira doesn't support murder, he kills the people who do crimes like these? gah, not that I should bother wasting my time justifying on the many levels these men were sick and wrong, I would just hate to see the manga disregarded as something violent and inappropriate.
At any rate, I hope it's obvious enough that these men were killers first, and after the fact thought to have fun with the manga association. *shudder* Thank goodness this is over, at least.