KASHIWA, Chiba -- A 17-year-old boy infuriated by online insults used a baseball bat Wednesday to brutally attack a younger boy who is now fighting for his life in a hospital, police said.
The alleged victim, 14-year-old schoolboy, is unconscious and in a serious condition in the hospital.
The unemployed teenage perpetrator, who can't be named for legal reasons, was arrested for attempted murder. He admits to the allegations.
"I hit him," he told the police.
Several other boys who were believed to have been with the older teenager when the alleged attack occurred are also being questioned by the police.
Police said that the boys became involved in an online argument and when they finally met for the first time just after midnight Wednesday in a Kashiwa park, the older boy viciously attacked the younger schoolboy, beating him to the head several times with a baseball bat.
"He posted bad things about me on a site and it made me mad, so I hit him," the older teen told the police.
Police said the pair first came in contact several months ago through a mobile phone site the schoolboy set up and the older boy posted messages to. They initially swapped messages, but soon began writing insults about each other. The older boy used an associate to find out the schoolboy's identity and then apparently contacted him to meet in person so they could talk. They met for the first time in the early hours of Wednesday morning in Takada Ryokuchi park in Kashiwa.
Neighbors associate the park with dangerous youths.
"Lots of small kids and their mothers go there during the day, but at night all the older kids hang around there and it gets scary," a 56-year-old woman living in the area said. "I'm not surprised something like this has happened."
Moral of the story: Dont talk shit online unless you can back it up.