Vancouver police ruled out terrorism in a car ramming attack that killed 11 people at a Filipino heritage festival in the Canadian city, saying the suspect has a history of mental health issues.
Dozens of others were injured, some seriously, as the ramming shook the country before a federal election.
A man driving a black Audi SUV entered the street just after 8 p.m. Saturday and struck people attending the Lapu Lapu Day festival. A Vancouver man was arrested.
“It is the darkest day in Vancouver’s history,” Vancouver Police Interim Chief Steve Rai told a news conference.
“The person we have in custody does have a significant history of interactions with police and health care professionals related to mental health,” he said.
Video of the aftermath shows the dead and injured along a narrow street in South Vancouver lined by food trucks. The front of the driver’s SUV is smashed in.
Kris Pangilinan, who brought his pop-up clothing and lifestyle booth to the festival, saw the vehicle enter past the barricade slowly before the driver slammed on the gas in an area that was packed with people after a concert. He said hearing the sounds of bodies hitting the vehicle will never leave his mind.
“He sideswiped someone on his right side and I was like, ‘Oh, yo yo.’ And then he slammed on the gas,” he said. “And the sound of the acceleration, it sounds like an F1 car about to start a race.
“He 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 are flying into the air.”
Pangilinan said that it would be hard to believe “that someone has some malice against the Filipino people.”
Suspect was detained by bystanders before the police arrived
A 30-year-old Vancouver man was arrested at the scene. Rai said that the man was arrested after initially being apprehended by bystanders.
Video circulating on social media shows a young man in a black hoodie with his back against a chain-link fence, alongside a security guard and surrounded by bystanders screaming and swearing at him.
“I’m sorry,” the man says, holding his hand to his head.
Rai declined to comment on the video.
Prime Minister Mark Carney canceled his first campaign event and two major rallies on the final day of the election campaign before 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 said. “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.”
In 2018, a man used a van to kill 10 pedestrians in Toronto. Eight women and two men died. Alek Minassian, who was found guilty, told police that he belonged to an online community of sexually frustrated men, some of whom have plotted attacks on people who have sex.
Witnesses describe how they leaped out of the way
Carayn Nulada said that she pulled her granddaughter and grandson off the street and used her body to shield them from the SUV. She said that her daughter suffered a narrow escape.
“The car hit her arm and she fell down, but she got up, looking for us, because she is scared,” said Nulada, who described children screaming, and pale-faced victims lying on the ground or wedged under vehicles.
“I saw people running and my daughter was shaking.”
Nulada was in Vancouver General Hospital’s emergency room early Sunday morning, trying to find news about her brother, who was run down in the attack and suffered multiple broken bones.
Doctors identified him by presenting the family with his wedding ring in a pill bottle and said that he was stable, but would be facing surgery.
James Cruzat, a Vancouver business owner, was at the event and heard a car rev its engine and then “a loud noise, like a loud bang” that he initially thought might 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 said.
Vancouver Mayor Kenneth Sim said in a social media post that the city would provide more information when possible.
“I am shocked and deeply saddened by the horrific incident at today’s Lapu Lapu Day event,” Sim said. “Our thoughts are with all those affected and with Vancouver’s Filipino community during this incredibly difficult time.”
Vancouver’s large Filipino population was honoring a national hero
Vancouver had more than 38,600 residents of Filipino heritage in 2021, representing 5.9% of the city’s total population, according to Statistics Canada, the agency that conducts the national census.
Lapu Lapu Day celebrates Datu Lapu-Lapu, an Indigenous chieftain who stood up to 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 he “represents the soul of native resistance, a powerful force that helped shape the Filipino identity in the face of colonization.”
British Columbia Premier David Eby said Canadians won’t let the tragedy define the celebration. “It is a community that has only ever been about love and family and community. The Filipino community is so beautiful,” he said.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. issued a statement expressing sympathy with the victims and their families.
“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 said.
The country’s Department of Foreign Affairs said that “we remember the 1 million strong Filipino community in Canada and pray for their continued strength and resilience.”
