Three of four police officers standing near former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe when he was shot and killed in Nara a week ago were slow to respond after the assailant fired a first round that missed the mark, sources close to the investigation have said.
A member of the Metropolitan Police Department special security unit -- Japan's equivalent of the U.S. secret service -- did hold up a bulletproof briefcase after hearing the first shot, but was too far from Abe to reach him in time before the second and fatal shot was fired.
