10 reactions to Japan’s Shinzo Abe assassination: Biden ‘stunned,’ Trump calls it ‘bad news for the world’

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Friday, July 08, 2022

Pedestrians are silhouetted against a large public video screen showing an image of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the Akihabara district of Tokyo on July 8, 2022, after he was shot and killed in the city of Nara. - Abe was pronounced dead on July 8, the hospital treating him confirmed, after he was shot at a campaign event in the city of Nara earlier in the day. | TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP via Getty Images

World leaders reacted with a range of emotions shortly after the assassination of Japan's former and longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, Friday morning. Abe died at the age of 67 after he was shot while campaigning for a candidate ahead of national elections.

Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, was charged with attempted murder before Abe's death was announced, according to Japanese media.

Hidetada Fukushima, the professor in charge of emergency medicine at Nara Medical University Hospital, told The New York Times that Abe was pronounced dead shortly after 5 p.m. in Japan.

This was approximately five hours after he was brought to the hospital showing no vital signs.

Dr. Fukushima said Abe sustained two bullet wounds to the front of his neck, damage to the heart and a major artery, causing blood loss, according to The Wall Street Journal.

He was shot by a man who approached him from behind and fired twice, according to witnesses.

He went into cardiopulmonary arrest and lost vital signs while he was transported to the hospital. Doctors could not resuscitate him after they tried to stop the bleeding and conducted a transfusion.

The following pages highlight 10 reactions from global leaders to Abe's death.