25-05-2025
American suspected in pepper-spray incident in Chiba: 'I lost my mind'
CHIBA (TR) – Chiba Prefectural Police have sent an American male to prosecutors over a pepper-spray incident at a shopping mall in Inzai City that sickened more than 40 people last week, reports (May 25).
At around 2:40 p.m. on May 23, Eric Yen-Joo Lin, 51, allegedly sprayed pepper spray at two other men, aged 72 and 69, in the parking lot of Aeon Mall Chiba New Town.
On Sunday police sent Lin to prosecutors on suspicion of inflicting injury.
'I lost my mind and sprayed the pepper spray,' Lin told police. 'I was attacked too.' Eric Yen-Joo Lin (X)
The male targets of the spray, who had been shopping, suffered minor injuries, the Inzai Police Station said previously.
According to police, 44 people complained of feeling unwell after the pepper spray was sprayed by Lin. Of them, twelve were taken to a hospital.
Lin also told police that he had gotten into a dispute with the two men over cigarettes before the incident.
