Though the Vancouver police did not reveal the identity of the 30-year-old suspect who plowed his SUV into a Filipino festival, killing at least nine people, the man’s face has been seen in a video going viral. The man believed to be of Asian-origin, based in the video, apologized to the crowd who detained him until the police arrived to arrest him. In a viral video from the site, the man can be seen saying “sorry”.
He is accused of barrelling his black SUV through the crowd at the Lapu-Lapu Day block party as the celebration was wrapping up around 8 pm local time. “The suspect was known to police in certain circumstances,” Vancouver acting police chief Steve Rai told reporters on Saturday night without elaborating. There is no terror angle and no gang angle, the police confirmed.
Rai said the event had been assessed and monitored for security with stakeholders — including those in charge of garbage trucks used in the past to block streets from traffic. The investigation is ongoing and is being led by the Vancouver police major crime section.
The driver may also have been suffering from mental health issues, the Vancouver Sun said, citing sources.
The man is believed to have made it onto the busy roadway after a few volunteers removed a barrier during clean-up of the festival. In a statement read Sunday morning, Prime Minister Mark Carney said more than 20 people were injured.
Carney said Canadians are heartbroken at what “police are describing as a car-ramming attack” that happened during “an occasion to gather and to celebrate the vibrancy of the Filipino-Canadian community.”
Lapu Lapu Day is named after an Indigenous resistance fighter in the Philippines who fought against Spanish colonization in the 16th century.
