Japanese Student Shot in Denver by Carjacker
A Japanese college student was shot in the chest and seriously wounded Friday in what police said was a carjacking.
Kouichi Takemoto, 26, had pulled into his apartment parking lot and was sitting in his car at about 1 a.m. when he was confronted by two masked men, police said. He turned over his money and was getting out of the car when he apparently yelled for help and was shot.
Takemoto, a student at National College in Denver, was listed in serious condition at Denver General Hospital with a bullet wound in the left shoulder, Police Detective David Metzler said.
Takemoto’s car was found abandoned in suburban Aurora later in the day. No arrests had been made.
Witnesses described the assailants as black but police said they saw no racial motivation in the attack.
The shooting came less than a month after two students from Japan were shot and killed in a carjacking in Los Angeles.
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