A train groper was successfully apprehended in Japan after a bystander decided to to get involved by tripping the fleeing suspect as his victims chased him on a train platform in Akabane Station, Tokyo.
The intense moment was captured online by Japanese Twitter user @influencer_com_. The video shows two school girls chasing after a man in a suit as he tries to flee from his victims while everyone else watches the whole incident.
痴漢かな？全力で逃走し、コケるガイジ登場。赤羽駅5-6番線ホームにて。 pic.twitter.com/Aji5ShnE5w
— 地球調査団4隊目0番員(宇宙人) (@influencer_com_) May 27, 2019
His victims can be heard shouting “don’t run away,” according to Grapee. But as soon as he was about to reach the stairs, a random bystander nonchalantly extends his foot and effectively trips the running suspect.
It was revealed the following day in a panel on daily morning news program Mezamashi TV that the man was successfully captured after stumbling. He later admitted to groping the school girls when he was arrested on suspicion of forced indecency, Nico Nico News reported as translated by Grapee.
“I simply felt like I had to film it,” said the high school boy in an interview. “You can call it a sense of justice, it could be evidence.”
The boy added in the interview that the man harassed the high school girl by touching her breasts. But this was not the first time it had happened. The girl had been experiencing sexual harassment on trains for a month and she eventually became fed up with it and decided to chase after the assailant herself.
Many netizens, however, were instead worried about the legality of what the man did by tripping the fleeing suspect as they were unsure how to classify his actions and whether it was illegal or not.
Ryuji Nishiguchi, who works at the Kobe Marine Law Office, said that he could be protected legally if he is helping them catch the fleeing criminal by tripping, but what is difficult to determine in the situation is the awareness of the man during the time of the crime, Yahoo Japan reported.
However, the panel on the morning show believed that the man would most likely not get prosecuted for what he did during the incident.
Featured image screenshot via Twitter / influencer_com_
