Reeling from ‘the Darkest Day in Our City’s History’

“Lord, help us instrument your peace. Where there is hatred, love. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy.”

People in Vancouver’s Filipino community gathered at Sunday mass to pray, mourn and come together after deadly tragedy hit at the heart of a joyful festival to celebrate community strength and unity.

The details of what exactly happened on Saturday evening as the Lapu-Lapu festival was wrapping up were still unfolding as politicians, community and faith leaders gave updates and space for people to gather on Sunday morning.

What we know so far is that a man drove his family’s black SUV into a crowd of people at the Lapu-Lapu festival just after 8 p.m., gathering speed and hitting multiple people with such force that witnesses described victims flying into the air.

The man, identified as Vancouver resident Kai-Ji Adam Lo, 30, was held at the scene of the attack by bystanders until police could arrest him.

Lo was charged with eight counts of second-degree murder and may face more charges, according to a Vancouver Police Department statement released late Sunday afternoon.

Before the April 27 charges, Lo had never been charged with a crime in British Columbia, according to the province's online database Court Services Online.

So far, 11 people are confirmed dead, although police say that number will likely rise. Dozens more are injured, and nine hospitals in the Metro Vancouver area have accepted patients. Police say they don’t yet know the man’s motive, but he had “a significant history of interactions with police and health-care professionals related to mental health.”

Police say they have ruled out terrorism as a motive for the attack.

“This is the darkest day in our city’s history,” Steve Rai, acting chief of the VPD, told media at a press conference on Sunday morning.

Rai said police are continuing to investigate the attack, and homicide investigators are working on putting together a charge recommendation to bring to Crown prosecutors.

At the office of Mable Elmore, an NDP MLA who is a member of the Filipino community, RJ Aquino wiped away tears.

“I haven’t slept,” Aquino, the chair of Filipino BC, the organization that ran the festival, told reporters. Aquino described the feelings of panic he and other community members felt as they heard the news and frantically called or messaged friends and loved ones to make sure they were OK.

“I don’t think my phone rang or buzzed that much in my entire life,” Aquino said. “Everyone wanting to make sure everyone’s OK — because the Filipino community, the way we talk about it is, ‘You’re probably my cousin, you just don’t know it yet.’”

Elmore and Aquino urged anyone who had witnessed or been injured in the attack to seek psychological help to deal with the aftermath of the traumatizing incident. To access help, Elmore suggested calling VictimLinkBC at 1-800-563-0808.

Elmore said she plans to hold a community meeting at her office to help people who were affected by the attack to get connected with support.

Police have not yet identified the victims but say they range in age from five to 65 and include a mix of genders.

Community leaders said they were also drawing on the strength of Filipino history and political activism. The festival marked Lapu-Lapu Day, a holiday in the Philippines that celebrates an Indigenous Chief who led his community to defeat Spanish colonizers in a battle in 1521.

“If there’s something the Filipino community has demonstrated over and over again, it’s how resilient we can be,” Aquino said.

“It’s not lost on us and our team that the spirit of the festival was about that resistance, that courage, that resilience, that strength. And we’re going to have to call that up in ourselves.”

British Columbia’s premier, David Eby, attended the service at St. Mary the Virgin South Hill Church and spoke to media following the mass.

Eby thanked the paramedics and other health workers who rushed to help, some coming in to work on their day off to help alleviate the pressure on the health system. Pointing to the high number of Filipino people who work in all areas of health care in the province, Eby said it was now time to “support them just like they support us.”

While Eby got several questions from reporters about whether the incident shows a need to reform mental health services in the province, including more capability to confine people against their will in order to offer care, he said it was too soon to address those questions because not enough is known about the perpetrator’s history.

“As we learn those answers, we'll take the action that's necessary to ensure that it can't happen again,” Eby said.