<\/p>\n
The suspect in a Canadian car-ramming attack that left 11 dead at a Filipino street party was charged with murder, police said Sunday, adding that additional charges were anticipated.<\/p>\n
The suspect, identified as Kai-Ji Adam Lo, 30, of Vancouver, was charged with eight counts of second-degree murder, according to the Vancouver Police Department.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lo, who appeared in court before returning to police custody, was alleged to have acted deliberately and had a history of mental health problems, police said.<\/p>\n
No motive has been confirmed for the Saturday evening attack in the western city of Vancouver, though terrorism was ruled out by police.<\/p>\n
The ramming shocked the country a day before a general election dominated by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canadian products and his threat to annex his northern neighbor, long a key ally and trading partner.<\/p>\n
Police chief Steve Rai said the 30-year-old suspect drove a black Audi SUV and had a “significant history” of interaction with police and mental health care professionals.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Filipino community had gathered in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood when festivalgoers were hit by the SUV.<\/p>\n
The celebration called the Lapu Lapu Festival commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Mark Carney, in a brief address to the nation, teared up as he addressed the tragedy.<\/p>\n
“Last night families lost a sister, a brother, a mother, a father, a son, or a daughter,” he said. “Those families are living every family’s nightmare.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
An AFP reporter saw police officers at the scene Saturday evening, with parts of the festival venue cordoned off.<\/p>\n
Footage posted online and verified by AFP shows the vehicle with a damaged hood parked on a street littered with debris, meters from first aid crews tending to people lying on the ground.<\/p>\n
Eyewitness Dale Selipe told the Vancouver Sun that she saw injured children on the street after the vehicle rammed into the crowd.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“There was a lady with her eyes staring up, one of her legs was already broken. One person was holding her hand trying to comfort her,” Selipe told the newspaper.<\/p>\n
Festival security guard Jen Idaba-Castaneto told a local news site that she saw bodies everywhere.<\/p>\n
“You don’t know who to help, here or there,” she said.<\/p>\n
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said in a tweet “I am shocked by the horrific news emerging from Vancouver’s Lapu Lapu Day Festival tonight.”<\/p>\n
Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos said in a statement he was “completely shattered to hear about the terrible incident.” \u00a0<\/p>\n
In the capital Ottawa, Julie Dunbar, a semi-retiree out for a morning run, recalled an attack in 2018 in Toronto in which a man in a van killed 11 people.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“So it has occurred before, but I fear for the society that we live in, that these things can happen,” said Dunbar, 72.<\/p>\n
Saturday’s event featured a parade, a film screening, dancing and a concert, with two members of the Black Eyed Peas featured on the lineup published by the organizers.<\/p>\n
Lapu Lapu Day is celebrated in the Philippines in remembrance of Indigenous chief Lapulapu, who led his men to defeat Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in battle in 1521.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“This is the darkest day in our city’s history,” Vancouver police said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Britain’s King Charles III, Canada’s head of state, said on Sunday he was “profoundly saddened” by the deaths.<\/p>\n
Canadians go to the polls Monday after an election race where candidates have wooed voters on issues including rising living costs and standing up to Trump.<\/p>\n
Carney is favored to win after assuring voters he can stand up to Washington’s barrage of sweeping tariffs and threats of annexation.<\/p>\n
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n
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Ottawa: The suspect in a Canadian car-ramming attack that left 11 dead at a Filipino street party was charged with murder, police said Sunday, adding that additional charges were anticipated. The suspect, identified as Kai-Ji Adam Lo, 30, of Vancouver, was charged with eight counts of second-degree murder, according to the Vancouver Police Department. Lo, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4126"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4127,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4126\/revisions\/4127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}