The suspect who was arrested for killing at least nine people with his SUV at a festival in Vancouver, Canada, looked to the crowd and uttered ‘I’m sorry’ after the ordeal.
Chaos erupted at the Lapu Lapu Day festival when the vehicle rammed into people just after 8pm on Saturday night. An unnamed 30-year-old man was arrested.
Dead bodies and injured partygoers were seen along a narrow street in South Vancouver lined by food trucks. The front of the driver’s SUV was smashed in.
Video circulating on social media showed a young man in a black hoodie with his back against a chain-link fence, alongside a security guard and surrounded by bystanders screaming and swearing at him.
‘I´m sorry,’ the man said, holding his hand to his head.
Interim Vancouver Police Chief Steve Rai declined to comment on the video, but said the person in custody was a ‘lone male’ who was ‘known to police in certain circumstances.’
Cops ruled out that it was an act of terrorism – and said the suspect was working alone.
Vancouver police secure the scene after a car drove into a crowd at the Lapu Lapu Festival in Vancouver on Saturday April 26, 2025
This black SUV plowed through a crowd of dozens of festivalgoers on a street in Vancouver, Canada killing many
Passerby Carayn Nulada said that she pulled her granddaughter and grandson off the street and used her body to shield them from the SUV. She said that her daughter suffered a narrow escape.
‘The car hit her arm and she fell down, but she got up, looking for us, because she is scared,’ said Nulada, who described children screaming, and pale-faced victims lying on the ground or wedged under vehicles.
‘I saw people running and my daughter was shaking.’
James Cruzat, a Vancouver business owner, was at the event and heard a car rev its engine and then ‘a loud noise, like a loud bang’ that he initially thought might be a gunshot.
‘We saw people on the road crying, others were like running, shouting, or even screaming, asking for help.
‘So we tried to go there just to check what was really actually happening until we found some bodies on the ground. Others were lifeless, others like, you know, injured,’ Cruzat said.
Nic Magtajas described an SUV roaring through the crowd at high speed.
‘I saw a bunch of people go over, go high up from the impact of hitting the car,’ said Magtajas, 19.
In response to the incident, King Charles shared a statement: ‘Both my wife and I were profoundly saddened to learn of the dreadful attack and utterly tragic loss of life in Vancouver, which took place as the Filipino community came together to mark the celebration of one of their most special festivals.
‘Our hearts and prayers go out to all those whose lives have been shattered by such a desperate tragedy and we send our deepest possible sympathy at a most agonizing time for so many in Canada.’