Despite an immediate request by Japanese law enforcement for custody and eventual trial, the men were only transferred on September 29, after the Japanese had formally indicted them. Although false rumors spread that the suspects were free to roam the base and had been seen eating hamburgers, the suspects were in fact held in a military brig until the Japanese officials charged them with the crime. initially took the men into custody, on September 6. While the crime was committed away from a U.S. service members a certain measure of extraterritoriality (exemption from jurisdiction of local law) only as it relates to the place the suspects were detained. After the incident became known, public outrage began, especially over the U.S.–Japan Status of Forces Agreement, which gives the U.S.
