THE man who drove his sports utility vehicle into a crowd at the Lapu-Lapu Day festival in Vancouver, Canada will face more criminal charges, Ambassador to Canada Maria Andrelita Austria said yesterday.
The incident at the Saturday festival organized by the Filipino community killed 11 people.
Austria said prosecutors have charged Kai-Ji Adam Lo with eight counts of second-degree murder, and prosecutors told her they are already processing the next batch of cases.
Austria, in an interview with radio dzBB, said not all the 11 fatalities and injured in the incident were Filipinos but did not say how many are Filipinos.
She only said embassy officials have met with the families of the fatalities and the injured, have given them “full assistance.”
In a related development, Austria said the embassy is coordinating with Canadian law enforcement authorities to ensure the security of Filipino events in the future.
One of these, she added, is the Filipino Heritage Month which will take place in June.
Celebrations will be held across several locations in Canada for the event, Austria added.
He said the Canadian police have promised to review and enhance their security protocols for such events.
New Zealand Defense Minister Judith Collins conveyed her country’s solidarity and sympathies to the Philippines.
“I would like to acknowledge the tragedy in Vancouver, Canada that affected some Philippine citizens. And it’s a terrible tragedy when things like that happen,” Collins told President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. during her courtesy call in Malacañang.
The President expressed his gratitude, adding that he could not believe that such an incident happened.
“It was totally unexplainable. It could not even be categorized as a terrorist attack. It was simply, apparently the perpetrator was just mentally disturbed and it was not particularly against Filipinos,” he said.
“But thank you for your thoughts and your prayers for our casualties,” Marcos added. – With Jocelyn Montemayor
