A man has been accused of multiple murder leaders on allegations He killed 11 people When he struck a crowd of people in a Filipino Heritage Festival in Vancouver, while witnesses described a horrible scene.
Kai-ji Adam Lo, 30, was Accused of eight second degree murder leaders During a video appearance before a judge on Sunday, a few hours after his arrest on the scene, said Damienne Darby, spokesperson for the British Columbia Prosecutors.
Investigators excluded terrorism as a reason and said more accusations were possible. They said LO had a history of mental health problems. He has not yet pleaded.
A LO lawyer was not listed in online court documents and the Associated Press was not immediately able to join a lawyer.
People killed were between 5 and 65, said officials. About two dozen people were injured, some in a critical way, when a black Audi SUV flew in a closed street just after 8 p.m. on Saturday and hit people who attended the Lapu day festival. The authorities had not released the names of the victims by Sunday evening.
Nathaly Nairn and her 15 -year -old daughter transported flowers to one of the vigilles. They attended the festival on Saturday, and Nairn said when he saw the SUV and the bodies damaged on the ground.
“Something really dark happened last night,” said Nairn, when she and her daughter wiped tears.
Emily Daniels also brought a bouquet. “It’s sad. Really sad, ”she said. “I can’t believe that something could happen so close to my home.”
The acting chief of the police Steve Rai called him “The darkest day in the story of Vancouver.” There was no indication of a reason, but Rai said that the suspect had “important history of interactions with the police and health professionals related to mental health”.
Carlos Osorio / Reuters
A video of the consequences showed the dead and injured along a narrow street in the south of Vancouver bordered by food trucks. The front of the Audi SUV was broken.
Kris Pangilinan, who brought her stand for pop-up and lifestyle to the festival, saw the vehicle enter slowly in front of a barricade before the driver accelerated in an area filled with people after a concert. He said that hear the sounds of people who scream and that the bodies striking the vehicle will never leave his mind.
“He slammed the gas, crossed the crowd,” said Pangilinan. “It looked like a bowling ball striking bowling pins and all the pins fly in the air.”
Suspect held by passers -by before the police arrive
Rai said the suspect was arrested after being initially apprehended by passers -by.
The video circulating on social networks showed a young man in a black hooded sweatshirt with his back against a chain link fence, alongside a security guard and surrounded by passers -by, screaming and swearing it.
“I’m sorry,” said the man, holding his hand at his head. Rai refused to comment on the video.
Prime Minister Mark Carney canceled his first campaign event and two major rallies on the last day of the electoral campaign before the vote on Monday.
“Last night, families lost a sister, a brother, a mother, a father, a son or a daughter. These families live the nightmare of each family, ”said Carney. “And for them and to the many others injured, to the Canadian Philippine community, and to everyone in Vancouver, I would like to offer my biggest condolences.”
Carney joined British Prime Minister of British Columbia David Eby and community leaders on Sunday evening in Vancouver.
“At the moment incredibly difficult, we will comfort mourning, we take care of each other, and United in common purposes,” published Carney in French and English on X with a photo of lighting a candle in a fortune memorial near the attack scene.
The tragedy recalled an attack in 2018, when a man used a van to kill 10 pedestrians in Toronto.
Witnesses describe how they jumped back
EYEWITNESS DALE SELIPE said to Sun Vancouver That she saw children injured in the street after the vehicle hit the crowd.
“There was a lady with his eyes looking, one of her legs was already broken. A person held his hand trying to comfort her,” Selipe told the newspaper.
The security guard of the Jen Idaba-Castaneto festival said to a local information site that she saw bodies everywhere.
“When I heard people screaming, I ran to see what happened, and I saw lifeless bodies on the street. The people I saw first were dead on the spot. Many others were injured or died,” she said.
Carayn Nulada said that she had pulled her granddaughter and her grandson from the street and used her body to protect them from the SUV. She said her daughter had undergone a narrow escape.
“The car struck her arm and she fell, but she got up, to get us, because she is afraid,” said Nulada, who described screaming children and victims with a pale face lying on the ground or stuck under vehicles.
“I saw people running and my daughter trembled,” said Nulada.
Rich Lam / The Canadian Press via AP
Nulada was in the emergency room of the Vancouver General Hospital on Sunday morning, trying to find news on her brother, who was dilapidated in the attack and suffered several broken bones.
The doctors identified it by presenting the family with their wedding ring in a bottle of pills and said that it was stable, but that it would be operated on.
James Cruzat, owner of a Vancouver company, was celebrating and heard a car on its engine, then “a loud noise, like a strong blow” that he initially thought was a shot.
“We saw people on the crying road, others were like running, shouting or even shouting, asking for help. So we tried to go just to check what was really going on until we find bodies on the ground. Others were lifeless, others like, you know, wounded,” said Cruzat.
Vincent Reynon, 17, left the festival when he saw the police rush. People were crying and he saw dispersed bodies.
“It was like something straight out of a horror film or a nightmare,” he said.
Adonis Quita said that when he had seen the SUV unravel through the crowd, his first reaction was to drag his 9 -year -old son outside the region. The boy did not stop saying, “I’m afraid, I’m afraid,” recalls Quita. Later, they prayed together.
His son had just moved to Vancouver of the Philippines with her mother to find Quita, who has lived here since 2024. Quita said that he worries that the child would find it difficult to adapt to life in Canada after witnessing the horrible event.
The mayor of Vancouver, Kenneth Sim, said that the city had “suffered its darkest day”.
“I know that many of us are afraid and feel uncomfortable,” said the mayor. “I know it’s hard to feel this right now, but Vancouver is still a safe city.”
The Philippine population of Vancouver honored a national hero
Vancouver had more than 38,600 inhabitants of the Philippin heritage in 2021, representing 5.9% of the total population of the city, according to Statistics Canada, the agency that leads the national census.
Lapu Day famous Datu Lapu-Lapu, an native chief who resisted the Spanish explorers who came to the Philippines in the 16th century. The organizers of the Vancouver event, which was in its second year, said that it “represents the soul of the native resistance, a powerful force which helped to shape the Philippine identity in the face of colonization”.
Eby said the province would not let tragedy define the celebration. He urged people to channel their rage to help people affected.
David Ryder / Reuters
“I don’t think there is a British Columbian who was not touched in one way or another by the Philippine community,” he said. “You cannot go to a place that delivers and not meet a member of this community in the long -term care house or hospitals, childcare services or schools. It is a community that gives and gives and yesterday was a celebration of their culture. ”
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. published a statement expressing his sympathy with the victims and their families.
“The Consulate General of the Philippines in Vancouver works with the Canadian authorities to ensure that the incident will make an in-depth investigation and that the victims and their families are supported and consoled,” he said.
The Philippine government is coordinating with local police to collect more details on the victims and the investigation, while the Vancouver Consulate created a hotline for families, the head of the presidential palace Claire Castro said on Monday.