Kanagawa Prefectural Police headquarters (Mainichi/Akihiko Yamamoto)

       YOKOHAMA -- Police are poised to arrest a former employee at a private day care center in the east Japan city of Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture for alleged involvement in a 1-year-old girl's death at the center in April 2017.

       Kanagawa Prefectural Police on Nov. 1 sought an arrest warrant for the former staff member, who is in her 40s, for allegedly inflicting injuries on the infant resulting in death amid deepening suspicions that she had a part in the incident, the Mainichi Shimbun has learned from sources close to the investigation. Police intend to investigate the details, including a motive, on the assumption that she hit the girl in the head with force.

       According to sources, the girl was found lifelessly lying on a futon in a room at the day care on April 27, 2017, and her death was confirmed at the hospital she was transported to. She apparently suffered a brain injury caused by a knock to the head.

       Police initially assumed it could be either intentional or an accident, but multiple doctors submitted their views that the wound was unnatural. Security camera footage in the day care center and sightings of the woman, who was in charge of caring for the infant, showed she was in the same room and got the girl to sleep. In voluntary questioning, she apparently denied involvement.

       The social welfare corporation that operates the nursery school explained to the infant's guardians in September 2019 how she had died. The corporation's consulting lawyer told the Mainichi Shimbun in December 2020: "We recognize that the cause of the girl's death is not clear. We will cooperate fully with police investigation."

       (Japanese original by Minhyang Hong, Nami Takata and Nao Ikeda, Yokohama Bureau)

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