Bob Mackin
Eleven people are dead after a man drove an Audi sport utility vehicle eastbound on 43rd Avenue near Fraser Street around 8:14 p.m. on April 26, through a crowd gathered at food trucks during the Vancouver Filipino community’s block party.
There were no concrete barricades, civic dump trucks or police vehicles blocking access to the street beside John Oliver secondary school during the Lapu Lapu Day Block Party. Rigid, temporary barriers have become standard security measures at major Vancouver festivals and parades over the past decade.
Kai-Ji Adam Lo appeared before a Justice of the Peace on April 27, charged with eight counts of second degree murder. The 30-year-old remains in custody and is expected to face more charges. Coincidentally, Lo’s brother Alexander was Vancouver’s first murder victim of 2024. Dwight William Kematch was charged with second degree murder.
During a midnight news conference, interim Vancouver Police chief Steve Rai was asked about the lack of barriers, especially in the wake of the New Year’s Day truck attack in the New Orleans French Quarter that killed 14.
“Those are facts we’re going to work through tomorrow and look at what community leaders we liaised with when we decided on the deployment,” Rai said.
At a morning update, Rai said most of the festival activities were on the John Oliver school grounds. East 43rd was deemed a minor, low-risk street for the food trucks. He called it the “darkest day in Vancouver’s history” and said it was a watershed moment that will “change the landscape for deployment of police.”
Video circulating from the moments after the incident shows motionless bodies strewn across the street, some underneath food trucks. Citizens and emergency crews rush to respond. The front of the Audi was destroyed and the driver’s side door open while a person remarks that the driver is gone.
Another clip shows a catatonic man with his back to the John Oliver field fence, next to a uniformed security guard. A man in plain clothes appears to protect him from a mob of angry men. He was later arrested by police.
Musical headliners Apl.de.ap and J. Rey Soul from the Black Eyed Peas had just finished their set when the mayhem began.
A source told theBreaker.news around 10:40 p.m. that eight people had been killed, including one child, and six others were in critical condition. A police officer near the scene told a family member of a festival attendee that patients were being treated as far away as Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver. VPD had dismissed terrorism as a motive.
Rai made his first major appearance as interim chief, after taking over from Adam Palmer, who left to join the RCMP E Division. He declined to state the number of victims to reporters, who gathered across the street from the Mountain View Cemetery.
At 3:05 a.m., VPD finally confirmed on X that nine people were dead. Rai opened his morning update by disclosing the death toll had risen to 11 and said the incident was not a case of terrorism.
The man in custody has yet to be charged, but “does have a significant history of interactions with police and healthcare professionals related to mental health.” The vehicle’s owner is a person associated with the family.
Video shot by theBreaker.news just before 1 a.m. showed police continuing to investigate. A white tarp covered what may have been a body, as an officer with a flashlight looked inside the Audi.
VPD and Victims Services workers are deployed to Douglas Park Community Centre, 801 W. 22nd Ave., for a 24-hour assistance centre to “help anyone who has not been able to contact a loved one” who was at the festival.
“If you are not able to attend in person, please call 604-717-3321.”
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