Senior citizen passes away shortly after being arrested and taken to hospital by police.

With cherry blossom season winding down, last Sunday many people were out at Suimeidai Edohigan no Mori, a park in the Hyogo Prefecture town of Kawanishi that’s famous for its many sakura trees. However, all was not peaceful under the boughs covered in springtime flowers, as at some point a woman in her 40s and an 89-year-old man became embroiled in an argument after the woman took issue with some aspect of the man’s behavior and cautioned him about it.

It’s unclear what exactly set off the disagreement, but at some point, according to witnesses, the man made an unexpected rebuttal by biting the woman’s arm.

The police were called, and when they arrived they found the man calm but claiming he hadn’t bit the woman. He was placed under arrest on suspicion of assault, but as the two officers attempted to lead the man to a squad car, he sat down on the ground. He was then placed on a stretcher and carried to the vehicle, but as the officers placed him in the backseat, they became concerned about his unnaturally pale complexion and saw that he appeared to be slipping out of consciousness. Postponing processing him at the police station, they instead drove him to a nearby hospital and released him into the staff’s care, but he died roughly one hour later.

▼ The park where the incident took place

▼ A CGI reenactment of the events

The man, whose name was not publicly released at the time of the incident, had come from the city of Ikeda in Osaka Prefecture, roughly 30 minutes south of the park via train, apparently by himself. The police say that he was not physically restrained or otherwise handled in a rough manner during his arrest or transport to the hospital. While the unusual circumstances have drawn online snickers to zombie outbreaks depicted in movies and video games, the more likely scenario is that the man was suffering from sort of less fantastical condition that was severely impacting him both mentally and physically, and an investigation into his cause of death is currently ongoing.

Source: Teleasa News via Yahoo! Japan News via Jin, ABC News
Top image: Pakutaso
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