The Metropolitan Police Department's Hikarigaoka Police Station is seen in Tokyo's Nerima Ward. (Mainichi/Takuya Suzuki)

       TOKYO -- A Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officer apparently shot himself in the head at a police box on Dec. 11, and he was later confirmed dead at the hospital.

       The senior police officer, 34, belonged to the MPD Hikarigaoka Police Station's community division. He was found collapsed and bleeding from the head by colleagues on the second floor of Miharadai Police Box in Tokyo's Nerima Ward at around 4:20 a.m. He was face-down, and a pistol with one round fired was found under his body. The police station believes that he killed himself with his service weapon.

       According to the police station, the officer was on duty from around 3:30 p.m. the previous day. Another officer assigned to the police box and two others from the police station who had stopped by during a patrol were there at the time of the incident. Hearing a gunshot, the three rushed to the second-floor break room and found the senior officer collapsed. No suicide note has been found.

       The deceased was employed by the MPD in May 2012, and had been working at Hikarigaoka Police Station since March 2019.

       (Japanese original by Kotaro Adachi, Tokyo City News Department)

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