BREAKING: Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Declared Dead After Being Shot At

Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, center, falls on the ground in Nara, western Japan Friday, July 8, 2022. Abe was in heart failure after apparently being shot during a campaign speech Friday in western Japan, NHK public television said Friday. (AP)

Shinzo Abe Assassination attempt: 

Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe has been declared dead after being shot at a campaign event in the city of Nara on Friday morning. The broadcaster aired footage showing Abe collapsed on the street, with several security guards running toward him. Abe was holding his chest when he collapsed, with his shirt smeared with blood. NHK says Abe was rushed to a hospital. Abe was in Nara campaigning ahead of Sunday’s election for the parliament’s upper house and was giving a speech when people heard a gunshot. Soon after, the police arrested a male suspect at the scene on suspicion of attempted murder, NHK said.

Shinzo Abe Shot At: Assassination attempt 

Former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe

Shot in the back with shotgun

At campaign event in Nara City Gravely injured, receiving CPR

Suspect, man in his 40s, arrested

No word on a possible motive

A general view shows workers at the scene after an attack on Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe at Kintetsu Yamato-Saidaiji station square in Nara on July 8, 2022. (AFP)

The attack was a shock in a country that’s one of the world’s safest and with some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere.

Video shows the attempted assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe 

Abe, 67, stepped down as prime minister in 2020 because he said a chronic health problem has resurfaced. Abe has had ulcerative colitis since he was a teenager and has said the condition was controlled with treatment.

Abe is a political blue blood who was groomed to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. His political rhetoric often focused on making Japan a “normal” and “beautiful” nation with a stronger military and bigger role in international affairs.

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel expressed sadness and shock at the shooting. “Abe-san has been an outstanding leader of Japan and unwavering ally of the U.S. The U.S. Government and American people are praying for the well-being of Abe-san, his family, & people of Japan,” he said on Twitter.