At first, no one doubted that the black Audi SUV had roamed the portable barrier as it was packed with festival attendees checking artisan items lined up in food trucks.
On Saturday, around 8pm, Apl.de.ap, a Filipino-American rapper and founding member of Black Eyed Peas, concluded the concert, a signature event at the Lapu Lapu Festival, hosted by the Filipino community in Vancouver, British Columbia.
At first, a large SUV was raw through the crowd, so Chris Pangilinan, who was selling clothing at the booth, assumed that another merchant had been put in to help load his products and closures.
After that, I started to speed up.
“He defended someone where the Bender was,” Pangirinan said on Sunday after a barely sleepy night. “All of a sudden you hear this exhaust and the sound of acceleration in the vehicle. And boom: he strikes dozens of people.”
Shortly afterwards, officers commanded a table in Mr. Pangilinan's tent and used it as a makeshift stretcher.
At least 11 people, ages 5 to 65, were killed in the episode, with Prime Minister Mark Carney describing it as a “caraming attack.” Steve Lye, interim chief of the Vancouver Police Department, has been injured. Sunday warned that some of them are likely to die.
Several witnesses said the SUV driver tried to escape after the attack but was detained by people in the crowd.
Late Sunday, Authorities said prosecutors charged 30-year-old Kaiji Adam Le with eight counts of second-degree murder. Further charges they said were expected.
Police Chief Lai previously refused to discuss the suspect's motives, but said police had previously “in practical contact with him about mental health issues.” British Columbia Premier David Ebby said the driver acted “deliberately.”
According to Carney, police ruled out terrorism as a motive, a shared assessment by national security authorities. “I don't think there's a positive threat to Canadians,” he said.
Until Saturday night and Sunday, members of Vancouver's large Filipino community were desperately exchanging messages to determine who they lost, who were injured, who escaped the massacre.
“I don't think my phone has made that much of a fuss about my entire life,” said RJ Aquino, president of the Philippine Canadian Community and Cultural Association in BC, “When someone answered, there was a lot of panic and relief.”
Local councillor and festival organizer Meble Elmore fled the murders at press conferences and turned them into shelters for those who struggled and sometimes failed to maintain their composure.
“It was a beautiful day for celebration,” she said.
Lapu-P-Day, an annual celebration in the Philippines, commemorates Datura-P-P-P-L-P-L-P-L-L-P-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L In Vancouver, the festival became an annual event in 2023.
“We're incredible pain,” Elmore said. “The Filipino community shows true resilience. We gather support and love from a wide range of communities from this catastrophe.”
The attack overthrew the final day of the Canadian election campaign, which has been ruled by President Trump's tariffs and his pledge to Canada as the 51st state. Ranked #3 New Democrat leaders Carney and Jagmeet Singh both largely abandoned their Sunday schedule. Mr. Carney was still planning on going to Vancouver, but instead of bringing together his supporters, he planned to meet with mourners.
“Last night, the family lost their sisters, siblings, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters,” Carney told reporters in Hamilton, Ontario. “These families live the nightmares of every family.”
Speaking to the Filipino Canadian, he said: “I will join you and all the Canadians who are grieving. I know that Canadians are united with you.”
Mr. Carney's conservative rival, Pierre Polibele, continued his campaign, but appeared at a Philippine church outside Toronto.
Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. expressed his “deepest sympathy” for the victims' families, saying in Vancouver he was “completely crushed after hearing about a terrible incident.”
Vancouver is proud to be a diverse, multicultural city, as more than half of its residents identified themselves as “visible minority,” according to the 2021 census.
Eby, the provincial premier, said on Sunday that Filipinos are prominent in the health and childcare and long-term care facility workforce.
“We're going to stand with them and support them the same way they support us,” Eby said. “It's their turn to take care of us.”
Hip-hop artist Jacob Breros, who performed at the festival, signed the autograph, took a photo, said he “feels at the top of the world,” and said he heard the SUV tears in the crowd and saw the driver try to escape.
“He gets out of the car and takes off and I start to run left,” Breros said. “The three of us were surrounding the man and screaming at him,” he said the security guards and event organizers had stepped in to protect the suspect from retaliation.
This was the first mass murder in Canada to involve a vehicle since 2021, when far-right extremists drove a pickup truck to five members of a Muslim family in London, Ontario, killing four. The judge found the man motivated by white supremacist ideology and deemed the murder a terrorist act.
In 2018, a Toronto man drove off using a rental van, killing 11 pedestrians and injuring another 15. Most of the victims were women.
In recent years, Canadian police have regularly blocked roads, leading to venues hosting large crowds with snowplows and gravel-filled dump trucks.
That step was not taken at the scene of the Vancouver attack.
As it highlights the agency's initial assessment that the attack was an isolated event, police allowed a 10-kilometer run and took over more than 45,000 participants last Sunday.
However, the one-off nature rarely comforted many in the Filipino community.
“Why do we – why do they hurt such a beautiful community?” asked the merchant Pangirinan. “It's definitely something I have to live with for the rest of my life, and we pay tribute to those affected and those who have passed away.”
Sarah Berman Contributed with a report from Vancouver.
