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Four Japanese Busted for Copycat Stabbing Threats

Warnings followed stabbings by crazed attacker

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Jun 17, 2008 8:50 AM CDT

(Newser) – Threats of copycat violence posted on Japanese websites have led to four arrests in the wake of seven fatal stabbings in Tokyo this month by a crazed attacker, AP reports. “I'm going to do it, too. I’m going to kill 100 people,” wrote one man. Last week's killings, in which a man drove a truck into a crowd before stabbing bystanders, followed warnings he had posted on the Internet.

Two men offer prayer for victims of a knifing rampage in which seven people were stabbed to death in Tokyo's Akihabara shopping district. (AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara)

In this security camera image, Tomohiro Kato, suspected of killing seven people in a knifing rampage in Tokyo, gestures with a knife near a clerk at a shop in Fukui city, western Japan, June 6, 2008. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)

Photographers wait for Tomohiro Kato, suspected of a deadly stabbing rampage, as he is scheduled to be transferred from a police station to a prosecutor's office, in Tokyo, Tuesday, June 10, 2008. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)

Police officers patrol Monday, June 9, 2008 in Tokyo's Akihabara shopping district where a man went on a stabbing spree the day before. (AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara)

Tomohiro Kato, center, suspected of a deadly stabbing rampage, sits inside a car as he is transferred from a police station in Tokyo Tuesday, June 10, 2008. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)

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Four Japanese Busted for Copycat Stabbing Threats

Warnings followed stabbings by crazed attacker

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