A person was charged with a number of counts of homicide on allegations he killed 11 folks when he rammed right into a crowd of individuals at a Filipino heritage pageant in Vancouver, as witnesses described a horrific scene.
Kai-Ji Adam Lo, 30, was charged with eight counts of second diploma homicide in a video look earlier than a decide on Sunday, hours after he was arrested on the scene, stated Damienne Darby, spokeswoman for British Columbia prosecutors.
Investigators dominated out terrorism as a motive and stated extra expenses are doable. They stated Lo had a historical past of psychological well being points. He has not but entered a plea.
An lawyer for Lo was not listed in on-line court docket paperwork and The Related Press wasn’t instantly in a position to attain an lawyer representing him.
These killed had been between the ages of 5 and 65, officers stated. About two dozen folks had been injured, some critically, when a black Audi SUV sped down a closed avenue simply after 8 p.m. Saturday and struck folks attending the Lapu Lapu Day pageant. Authorities had not launched victims’ names by Sunday night.
Nathaly Nairn and her 15-year-old daughter carried flowers to one of many vigils. They’d attended the pageant on Saturday, and Nairn recounted seeing the broken SUV and our bodies on the bottom.
“Something really dark happened last night,” Nairn stated, as she and her daughter wiped away tears.
Emily Daniels additionally introduced a bouquet. “It’s sad. Really sad,” she stated. “I can’t believe something like this could happen so close to home.”
Police interim chief Steve Rai known as it “the darkest day in Vancouver’s history.” There was no indication of a motive, however Rai stated the suspect has “a significant history of interactions with police and health care professionals related to mental health.”
Individuals collect close to the scene of an incident the place a automobile was pushed right into a crowd at a Filipino group Lapu Lapu Day block get together, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada April 27, 2025.
Carlos Osorio / REUTERS
Video of the aftermath confirmed the lifeless and injured alongside a slender avenue in South Vancouver lined by meals vans. The entrance of the Audi SUV was smashed in.
Kris Pangilinan, who introduced his pop-up clothes and life-style sales space to the pageant, noticed the automobile enter slowly previous a barricade earlier than the driving force accelerated in an space filled with folks after a live performance. He stated listening to the sounds of individuals screaming and our bodies hitting the automobile won’t ever go away his thoughts.
“He slammed on the gas, barreled through the crowd,” Pangilinan stated. “It looked like a bowling ball hitting bowling pins and all the pins are flying into the air.”
Suspect detained by bystanders earlier than police arrived
Rai stated the suspect was arrested after initially being apprehended by bystanders.
Video circulating on social media confirmed a younger man in a black hoodie together with his again towards a chain-link fence, alongside a safety guard and surrounded by bystanders screaming and swearing at him.
“I’m sorry,” the person stated, holding his hand to his head. Rai declined to touch upon the video.
Prime Minister Mark Carney canceled his first marketing campaign occasion and two main rallies on the ultimate day of the election marketing campaign earlier than Monday’s vote.
“Last night families lost a sister, a brother, a mother, father, son or a daughter. Those families are living every family’s nightmare,” Carney stated. “And to them and to the many others who were injured, to the Filipino Canadian community, and to everyone in Vancouver, I would like to offer my deepest condolences.”
Carney joined British Columbia Premier David Eby and group leaders Sunday night in Vancouver.
“In this incredibly difficult moment, we will comfort the grieving, care for one another, and united in common purpose,” Carney posted in French and English on X together with a photograph of him lighting a candle at a makeshift memorial close to the scene of the assault.
The tragedy was paying homage to an assault in 2018, when a person used a van to kill 10 pedestrians in Toronto.
Witnesses describe how they leaped out of the best way
Eyewitness Dale Selipe instructed the Vancouver Solar that she noticed injured youngsters on the road after the automobile rammed into the gang.
“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 stated.
Carayn Nulada stated she pulled her granddaughter and grandson off the road and used her physique to protect them from the SUV. She stated that her daughter suffered a slender escape.
“The car hit her arm and she fell down, but she got up, looking for us, because she is scared,” stated Nulada, who described youngsters screaming, and pale-faced victims mendacity on the bottom or wedged below autos.
“I saw people running and my daughter was shaking,” Nulada stated.
Vancouver police study a black automotive suspected to be concerned at a scene after a automobile drove right into a crowd on the Lapu Lapu Pageant in Vancouver, British Columbia, April 26, 2025.
Wealthy Lam/The Canadian Press through AP
Medical doctors recognized him by presenting the household together with his wedding ceremony ring in a tablet bottle and stated that he was steady, however can be dealing with surgical procedure.
James Cruzat, a Vancouver enterprise proprietor, was on the celebration and heard a automotive rev its engine after which “a loud noise, like a loud bang” that he initially thought is likely to be a gunshot.
“We saw people on the road crying, others were like running, shouting, or even screaming, asking for help. So we tried to go there just to check what was really actually happening until we found some bodies on the ground. Others were lifeless, others like, you know, injured,” Cruzat stated.
Vincent Reynon, 17, was leaving the pageant when he noticed police speeding in. Individuals had been crying and he noticed scattered our bodies.
“It was like something straight out of a horror movie or a nightmare,” he stated.
Adonis Quita stated when he noticed the SUV ramming via the gang, his first response was to pull his 9-year-old son out of the realm. The boy stored saying “I’m scared, I’m scared,” Quita recalled. Later they prayed collectively.
His son had simply relocated to Vancouver from the Philippines together with his mom to reunite with Quita, who has lived right here since 2024. Quita stated he worries the kid will wrestle to regulate to life in Canada after witnessing the horrific occasion.
Vancouver Mayor Kenneth Sim stated town had “suffered its darkest day.”
“I know many of us are fearful and feel uneasy,” stated the mayor. “I know it’s hard to feel this way right now, but Vancouver is still a safe city.”
Vancouver’s Filipino inhabitants was honoring a nationwide hero
Vancouver had greater than 38,600 residents of Filipino heritage in 2021, representing 5.9% of town’s complete inhabitants, in accordance with Statistics Canada, the company that conducts the nationwide census.
Lapu Lapu Day celebrates Datu Lapu-Lapu, an Indigenous chieftain who stood as much as Spanish explorers who got here to the Philippines within the sixteenth century. The organizers of the Vancouver occasion, which was in its second 12 months, stated he “represents the soul of native resistance, a powerful force that helped shape the Filipino identity in the face of colonization.”
Eby stated the province gained’t let the tragedy outline the celebration. He urged folks to channel their rage into serving to these affected.
An individual reacts throughout a group gathering for mourners at Kensington Park the day after a automobile was pushed right into a crowd at a Filipino group Lapu Lapu day block get together, in Vancouver, Canada, April 27, 2025.
David Ryder/REUTERS
“I don’t think there is a British Columbian that hasn’t been touched in some way by the Filipino community,” he stated. “You can’t go to a place that delivers and not meet a member of that community in the long-term care home or hospitals, childcare or schools. This is a community that gives and gives and yesterday was a celebration of their culture.”
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. issued an announcement expressing sympathy with the victims and their households.
“The Philippine Consulate General in Vancouver is working with Canadian authorities to ensure that the incident will be thoroughly investigated, and that the victims and their families are supported and consoled,” he stated.
The Philippine authorities is coordinating with native police to assemble extra particulars about victims and the investigation, whereas the Vancouver consulate has established a hotline for households, presidential palace press officer Claire Castro instructed reporters in Manila on Monday.
