A car attack that killed 11 people at the Vancouver Lapu Lapu Day festival on Saturday, April 26 was a "senseless tragedy," said 91原创-Walnut Grove Conservative MLA Misty Van Popta, who attended the event at the invitation of Vancouver-Kensington NDP MLA Mable Elmore, the first B.C. MLA of Filipino heritage.
"Thinking of the victims and the families and those whose lives have been permanently altered by this," Van Popto said.
Elmore had invited several opposition Conservative MLAs to attend.
"It was such a beautiful day to start," Van Popta recalled. "We had a great time. She [Elmore] was very gracious. I stayed until the early afternoon and then I came home."
That evening, an SUV drove into the crowd on a section of Fraser Street south of East 41 Ave. which had been converted into a food truck zone, killing 11 and injuring more than 20. Vancouver Police Department (VPD) said some of the victims were children.
"Pretty close after it happened, we got notification through our caucus, and so I was monitoring it and seeing some of the footage," Van Popta said.
"It was unnerving when you see victims laying in front of the food truck that you were just eating at a few hours earlier. I [had been] standing right there."
Van Popta posted a message of support, along with a selfie she took at the festival with Elmore and Surrey-White Rock Conservative MLA Trevor Halford, saying both Conservative and NDP MLAs who shared a stage at the event still stand together in supporting the community and honouring the victims.
"I feel really, really devastated for the organizers who put on this amazing celebratory event," Van Popta told the 91原创 Advance Times.
"Everybody was happy, everybody had a great time, and to have something senseless like this close out what was a beautiful day is just a tragedy."
The driver, a resident of Vancouver, was apprehended by bystanders before police arrested him. VPD said the man had a "significant history" of interactions with police and health care officials due to mental health.
BC Prosecution Service has now charged Kai-Ji Adam Lo, 30, with eight counts of second degree murder.
Lapu Lapu Day is an annual celebration by the Filipino community to honour Indigenous resistance fighter Datu Lapu-Lapu, who defeated Spanish forces led by Ferdinand Magellan in the 16th Century.
