Vancouver assault newest: Suspect named and charged with homicide after 11 killed in car-ramming assault | EUROtoday

Canadians will begin heading to the polls in a couple of hours, following Vancouver’s “darkest day” with 11 folks useless and greater than 20 injured within the car-ramming assault on the weekend.

Prime Minister Mark Carney cancelled the final rallies of the election marketing campaign on Sunday in Calgary, Richmond and British Colombia following the tragedy, although he went forward with smaller occasions in Edmonton and Saskatoon, Canada’s Globe and Mail experiences.

Conservative chief Pierre Poilievre continued campaigning, however added a go to to a Filipino church on Sunday morning. On social media, he shared pictures and movies of rallies in Peterborough, Carleton and Ottowa.

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

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh scrapped almost all his pre-election day occasions.

Shaken competition attendees and locals have laid flowers at a makeshift memorial to the victims of the automotive ramming assault in Vancouver.

Nathaly Nairn and her 15-year-old daughter carried flowers to one of many vigils. They had attended the competition on Saturday, and Nairn recounted seeing the broken SUV and our bodies on the bottom.

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

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

The 11 folks killed within the car-ramming incident vary in age from 5 to 65, officers mentioned, whereas warning the demise toll might rise additional with different victims critically injured.

Vancouver police mentioned the victims have been a mixture of female and male, together with younger folks.

More than 20 have been injured, some critcally, authorities mentioned, after the black SUV sped down a closed road at 8pm native time on Saturday and hit folks attending the Lapu Lapu Day Festival.

Vancouver Mayor Kenneth Sim mentioned town had “suffered its darkest day.”

“I know many of us are fearful and feel uneasy,” mentioned 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 homicide, with extra costs anticipated to observe.

Hundreds of individuals have laid flowers at a makeshift memorial throughout a candlelit vigil for victims of the automotive ramming assault.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr issued a press release expressing sympathy with the victims and their households.

“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 automotive hit her arm and she or he fell down, however she obtained up, searching for us, as a result of she is scared,” said Ms Nulada, who described children screaming, and pale-faced victims lying on the ground or wedged under vehicles.

“I noticed folks operating 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 noticed folks on the highway crying, others have been like operating, shouting, and even screaming, asking for assist. So we tried to go there simply to test what was actually really occurring till we discovered some our bodies on the bottom. Others have been lifeless, others like, you already know, injured,” Mr Cruzat mentioned.

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 one thing straight out of a horror film 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.