SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
By Michael Koziol
A 30-year-old man has been charged with multiple counts of murder after a car ploughed through crowds at a Filipino community festival in Vancouver, killing 11 people aged between five and 65, in an event that has rocked Canada just as voters head to the polls to choose their next government.
Kai-Ji Adam Lo, from Vancouver, was charged with eight counts of second-degree murder, and prosecutors said more charges were possible. He appeared in court via video on Sunday, Vancouver time, and remains in custody.
Police said dozens more people were injured in the incident and warned the death toll could rise. They did not know the identities of some of the patients now being treated in hospital.
They earlier said a 30-year-old Vancouver man had been arrested at the scene after initially being apprehended by bystanders.
Video circulating on social media showed 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.
Eleven people are now confirmed dead and police warned the toll could rise.Credit: AP
Police said earlier there was no evidence the suspect was motivated by political or religious grievances, and did not regard it as an incident of terrorism. They said the man was known to police and had a substantive history of mental health-related interactions with authorities.
“This is the darkest day in our city’s history,” acting chief constable Steve Rai said.
“The actions of a single person shattered our collective sense of safety. It is impossible to overstate how many lives have been impacted forever by this lone individual.”
The attack took place shortly after 8pm on Saturday, Vancouver time, when witnesses said a black Audi SUV made its way slowly around a barrier before ramming into a crowd on a street in Vancouver’s south. People had been celebrating the Lapu Lapu Day festival, a Filipino community event, at an adjacent school.
Vancouver police at the scene of the incident. Credit: AP
The festival was wrapping up at the time, and the street was busy with people buying dinner from assembled food trucks at the end of a performance by headline act Apl.de.ap, from the Black Eyed Peas.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim has ordered a full review of the safety measures that were in place for the event, including barriers and traffic control.
Prime Minister Mark Carney toned down his plans on the final full day of campaigning and headed to the Vancouver province of British Columbia, while Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre and his wife attended a Filipino church on Sunday morning, local time, to express their condolences.
“All of them will have a deep hole in their hearts today, and we will try and fill it with the love of the entire country,” Poilievre said.
A member of Vancouver’s Filipino community visits a growing memorial near the festival site on Sunday.Credit: AP
Carney offered his deepest condolences to families of the deceased, who were “living every family’s nightmare”.
Jagmeet Singh, leader of the progressive New Democratic Party, cancelled campaign events on Sunday. He had attended the festival and left the site only minutes before the attack.
“There was kids there, there was families there, and I met them. They were so full of joy,” he said.
Witnesses recounted the sound of the bodies being struck and sideswiped by the SUV. A shop assistant who was at work on the street during the incident told Canada’s Globe and Mail the vehicle charged down the street, with people screaming and running to help, while others stood frozen in shock.
“We just see him go full speed through a bunch of people. I saw a bunch of people go high up from the impact of hitting the car,” Nic Magtajs said. “Pure mayhem as soon as it happened. It was so loud … A lot of loud bangs, not to mention the engine.”
One witness told CTV News he saw a black vehicle driving erratically in the area of the festival just before the crowd was struck.
Rai said most of the festival took place within the safe confines of the school, and there had been no threats to the event. However, the tragedy would lead to changes to police protocols.
“This will change the landscape for deployment of police going forward,” he said. “This will be a watershed moment for everyone involved at the city.”
Members of the public attach flowers to a fence, near the scene where a vehicle drove into crowd at a street festival the night before.Credit: AP
The updated death toll exceeds the 10 people who were killed when a 25-year-old man ploughed through a crowded Toronto footpath in 2018. In that case, the man pleaded guilty and told police he belonged to an online community of sexually frustrated men, some of whom have plotted attacks on people who have sex.
The tragedy has cast a pall over the end of campaigning in an extraordinary election that has been shaped by the tariffs and threats of US President Donald Trump. Carney, who replaced the deeply unpopular Justin Trudeau as prime minister, is a central bank governor who has never held a seat in parliament.
He is expected to lead the centre-left Liberal Party to a fourth term on Monday (Tuesday AEST), with polls showing more Canadians back him to take on Trump than Poilievre, a career politician and conservative who was previously described as a Trump-lite figure.
King Charles said he and Queen Camilla were deeply saddened by the “dreadful attack and utterly tragic loss of life”.
“Our hearts and prayers go out to all those whose lives have been shattered by such a desperate tragedy and we send our deepest possible sympathy at a most agonising time for so many in Canada,” he said.
with AP, Reuters
