Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said the city suffered its “darkest day” on Saturday when a man drove an SUV into a crowd of people at the Lapu Lapu Day festival.
Officials confirmed that 11 people have died from the incident and they range in age from five to 65 years old.
The victims were gathered on the grounds of a school at East 41st Avenue and Fraser Street, celebrating Filipino culture and heritage.
“I’m completely heartbroken,” Sim said. “I’m shocked, and I’m angry.”
“I’m devastated by the lives that have been lost and the pain that’s been inflicted on our community.”
Sim added that the city grieves with the Filipino community and the family members of the victims.
Vancouver police confirmed that the driver, who is in custody, entered an area of the festival from East 43rd Avenue.
Questions are being raised about security at the event and why the suspect was able to easily access the site.
“Public safety has been our key priority since day one, and I want to know how we can avoid an incident like this from ever happening again,” Sim said.
“Now, I’ve asked, and I’ve received a full briefing by the VPD and our team at the city here on yesterday’s incident and, as a result, I’ve directed a full review of our event safety measures, including barriers, traffic control and safety protocols.”
Sim said he wants everyone to know, however, that despite this very difficult time, Vancouver is still a safe city.
“We have over 3,000 events and festivals per year in our city, the vast majority… happening without incident whatsoever,” Sim added.
“So I do encourage you, and I understand how people may feel, but I encourage you to keep your plans in place and enjoy. Enjoy these events.”
The suspect, who has not been named, has a significant history of mental health issues and is known to police, Sim confirmed.
Vancouver police interim Chief Const. Steve Rai said the tragedy is something the city has never experienced before.
He said that a risk assessment is conducted every time there is an event and that it was undertaken in this case.
“It’s everything from social media scanning, all the social media, is there anyone out there making threats on this event?” Rai said.
“Is there a potential pop-up demonstration? Is there somebody associated to this event that has a history with people, organizers — just a whole gamut of items. We also look at the past history of the event.”
He said there were no incidents last year at the festival and officials thought there wouldn’t be any this year based on the information and threat assessment available.
“We don’t want to cage everybody up at every event in the city of Vancouver,” Rai added.
“We can do that like some other places in the world, but it hasn’t been warranted here. And just so you know, we did police this event. During the day we had one lost child found by officers who were there, and we had somebody (who) lost their car, they didn’t know where they had parked it. We helped them find it.”
Rai said there was no indication that this was going to be a high-risk event.
“It’s not like we’re not in the neighbourhood,” he said.
“We’re just not marching up and down the street. And we’re not putting concrete barriers up with big dump trucks for the intelligence we had and no threats. And [the] previous history of the event, which was a very fun cultural celebration involving young people, majority of it held in the schoolyard, not accessible to vehicles. So … we try not to cage people in.”
A 24-hour assistance center has been established at the Douglas Park Community Centre, located at 801 West 22nd Ave.
Vancouver police officers and victim services professionals have been deployed to help anyone who has not been able to contact a loved one who was at the Lapu Lapu festival. If you are not able to attend in person, call (604) 717-3321 to speak with a victim liaison officer.