A man resembling the suspect linked to the fatal shooting of the president of a gyoza restaurant chain in 2013 was caught on a security camera near the president's house in Kyoto the day before the murder, investigative sources said.
Police arrested Yukio Tanaka, a senior member of a group in Fukuoka Prefecture linked to the Kudo-kai crime syndicate, on suspicion of killing Takayuki Ohigashi, the president of Ohsho Food Service Corp., which operates the Gyoza no Ohsho restaurant chain.
The Kyoto and Fukuoka prefectural police, which suspect the murder was premeditated, on Thursday searched the office of a group linked to Tanaka, 57.
Ohigashi -- then 72 -- was fatally shot outside the company's headquarters in Yamashina Ward, Kyoto, in the early hours on Dec. 19, 2013.
A nearby security camera captured footage of a motorcycle leaving the vicinity shortly after the shooting.
Ohigashi's house was about one kilometer from the crime scene. According to investigators, a security camera in the area captured footage of a suspicious individual walking near Ohigashi's home the day before the incident.
As the man's face was not clearly visible in the footage, the Kyoto prefectural police asked an expert to evaluate the video and were told there was a possibility that Tanaka was the individual based on his physique and gait.
The police suspect Tanaka was checking whether Ohigashi was at home, and might have been waiting for an opportunity to attack him.
Investigators believe Tanaka murdered Ohigashi, based on DNA collected from a cigarette butt found at the crime scene and other evidence.
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