Dozens of people were injured and 11 killed when the suspect drove a black Audi SUV into a crowd at the Filipino heritage festival. The street festival was taking place at E. 41st Avenue and Fraser on Saturday.
Several videos from the scene and the aftermath of the incident showed damaged vehicles, the injured and the dead.
‘Slammed on the gas, rushed through crowd’
An eyewitness from the festival, Kris Pangilinan, who had brought his pop-up clothing and lifestyle booth to the event, said he heard the sounds of bodies hitting the vehicle.
“He (Kai-Ji Adam Lo) slammed on the gas, barreled through the crowd. And all I can remember is seeing bodies flying up in the air higher than the food trucks themselves and landing on the ground, and people yelling and screaming. It looked like a bowling ball hitting bowling pins, and all the pins were flying into the air,” Pangilinan was cited by AP.
Pangilinan added that it would be hard to believe that someone had ill intentions against the Filipino people.
Meanwhile, a Vancouver business owner, James Cruzat, who was at the Lapu Lapu festival, said he heard a car rev its engine, followed by a “loud noise, like a loud bang” which he initially thought to be a gunshot.
Cruzat said, “We saw people on the road crying, others were running, shouting, or even screaming, asking for help. So we tried to go there just to check what was happening until we found some bodies on the ground. Others were lifeless, others like, you know, injured.”
A 17-year-old Vincent Reynon was leaving the festival when he saw the cops rushing into the scene. He described the scene as “something straight out of a horror movie or a nightmare” as he witnessed people crying and bodies lying on the ground.
Who is Kai-Ji Adam Lo?
A 30-year-old Kai-Ji Adam Lo has been charged with eight counts of second-degree murder, with possibilities of additional charges, by the British Columbia Prosecution Service.
Canadian police and other investigators said that the incident was ‘not an act of terrorism’, noting that Lo had a history of mental health issues, a report from The Associated Press said.
Prosecutors said that Lo, a resident of Vancouver, appeared in court and continues to remain in custody. However, a clear motive behind the ramming is yet to be established.
Lo was first detained by bystanders before the police arrived, who then arrested him at the scene itself. But authorities had not confirmed his identity at the moment. Police Interim Chief Steve Rai described the day of the accident as the “darkest day in Vancouver’s history”.
During a press conference, Rai said, “The person we have in custody does have a significant history of interactions with police and health care professionals related to mental health.”
Lapu Lapu Festival
The Lapu Lapu Day celebrates Datu Lapu-Lapu, an Indigenous chieftain who stood up to the Spanish explorers who came to the Philippines in the 16th century.
Organisers of the festival said that the anti-colonial leader “represents the soul of native resistance, a powerful force that helped shape the Filipino identity in the face of colonisation”.
This year, the festival fell just on the weekend before Canada’s election.
According to Statistics Canada, Vancouver had over 38,600 residents of Filipino heritage in 2021, making up for 5.9 per cent of the city’s population.
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