Vancouver attack latest: Suspect named and charged with murder after 11 killed in car-ramming attack – UK Times

Canadians will start heading to the polls in a few hours, following Vancouver’s “darkest day” with 11 people dead and more than 20 injured in the car-ramming attack on the weekend.

Prime Minister Mark Carney cancelled the last rallies of the election campaign on Sunday in Calgary, Richmond and British Colombia following the tragedy, though he went ahead with smaller events in Edmonton and Saskatoon, Canada’s Globe and Mail reports.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre continued campaigning, but added a visit to a Filipino church on Sunday morning. On social media, he shared images and videos of rallies in Peterborough, Carleton and Ottowa.

Mr Poilievre said he spoke with Vancouver Mayore Ken Sim, Premier David Eby and Philippine Consul General Gina Jamoralin following the attack.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh scrapped nearly all his pre-election day events.

Shaken festival attendees and locals have laid flowers at a makeshift memorial to the victims of the car ramming attack in Vancouver.

Nathaly Nairn and her 15-year-old daughter carried flowers to one of the vigils. They had attended the festival on Saturday, and Nairn recounted seeing the damaged SUV and bodies on the ground.

“Something really dark happened last night,” Nairn said, as she and her daughter wiped away tears.

Emily Daniels also brought a bouquet. “It’s sad. Really sad,” she said. “I can’t believe something like this could happen so close to home.”

The 11 people killed in the car-ramming incident range in age from five to 65, officials said, while warning the death toll could rise further with other victims critically injured.

Vancouver police said the victims were a mix of male and female, including young people.

More than 20 were injured, some critcally, authorities said, after the black SUV sped down a closed street at 8pm local time on Saturday and hit people attending the Lapu Lapu Day Festival.

Vancouver Mayor Kenneth Sim said the city had “suffered its darkest day.”

“I know many of us are fearful and feel uneasy,” said the mayor. “I know it’s hard to feel this way right now, but Vancouver is still a safe city.”

The driver, Kai-Ji Adam Lo, aged 30, has since been charged with eight counts of second-degree murder, with more charges expected to follow.

Hundreds of people have laid flowers at a makeshift memorial during a candlelit vigil for victims of the car ramming attack.

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 Philippine government is coordinating with local police to gather more details about victims and the investigation, while the Vancouver consulate has established a hotline for families, presidential palace press officer Claire Castro told reporters in Manila this morning.

Vancouver mayor Kenneth Sim said the city had “suffered its darkest day

“I know many of us are fearful and feel uneasy,” said the mayor.

“I know it’s hard to feel this way right now, but Vancouver is still a safe city.”

Vancouver’s large Filipino population was honoring a national heroVancouver had more than 38,600 residents of Filipino heritage in 2021, representing 5.9 per cent 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 organisers 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 colonisation”.

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 Ms 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.”Ms Nulada was in Vancouver General Hospital’s emergency room yesterday 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 celebration 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,” Mr Cruzat said.

Vincent Reynon, 17, was leaving the festival when he saw police rushing in. People were crying and he saw bodies on the ground. “It was like something straight out of a horror movie or a nightmare,” he said.

Adonis Quita said when he saw the SUV ramming through the crowd, his first reaction was to drag his nine-year-old son out of the area.

The boy kept saying “I’m scared, I’m scared,” Quita recalled. Later they prayed together. His son had just relocated to Vancouver from the Philippines with his mother to reunite with Quita, who has lived here since 2024. Quita said he worries the child will struggle to adjust to life in Canada after witnessing the horrific event.