Police in Tokyo said Saturday they have arrested a 27-year-old woman on suspicion of killing an American airman in his 30s who was stationed at the U.S. military’s Yokota Air Base.

According to police, the suspect, Aria Saito, who lives in Koto Ward, has admitted to stabbing the man, with whom she was in a relationship, at his house in Tachikawa at around 8 p.m. Friday, Fuji TV reported. The victim was later identified as Master Sgt Nicholas Vollweiler.

Police quoted Saito as saying that they had been quarreling because Vollweiler wanted to break up with her. She said she stabbed him and that she wanted to die, too.

Some friends of the victim, who were present, subdued Saito and called 110. Police rushed to the house and found the victim unconscious, bleeding from a stab wound to the right side of his neck. He was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

A neighbor told police that prior to the incident, he heard a man and woman in the house loudly arguing.

The U.S. military issued a statement Saturday in which it said “a military member from the 374th Airlift Wing sustained serious injury and was pronounced dead at his off base residence [Friday] at approximately 8:42 p.m.”





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