4 teenage kids of U.S. military personnel arrested for attempted murder

TOKYO, Dec. 5 Kyodo -
Four teenage children of U.S. military personnel at Yokota Air Base in Tokyo
were arrested Saturday on suspicion of attempted murder in connection with an
incident in which a woman on a motorbike was seriously injured after becoming
entangled in a rope stretched across a road, police said.
The Metropolitan Police Department arrested the four boys and girls, aged
between 15 and 18, after the U.S. military handed them over earlier in the day
at the request of the MPD.
The four teenagers admitted to conspiring to stretch the rope on the road but
denied they had criminal intent, the police said, adding the four also told
investigators that they had not expected to be accused of attempted murder as a
result of their action.
The 23-year-old woman became entangled in the rope, which was stretched across
the road in Musashimurayama, Tokyo, as she was riding a minibike late in the
night of Aug. 13. She collapsed and suffered a skull fracture at the scene.
She later told investigators that she saw several foreigners before the
incident and the four were caught on a surveillance camera near the area,
prompting the police to determine that they were involved, according to the
police.
The site of the incident is about 1 kilometer from the Yokota base.
==Kyodo