I’m sorry,’ the suspect said to the audience after being apprehended after using his SUV to kill at least 11 people at a Vancouver, Canada, festival
Just after 8 p.m. on Saturday, the car crashed into people at the Lapu Lapu Day festival, causing chaos. An unidentified 30-year-old male was taken into custody.
In South Vancouver, a narrow street lined with food trucks was spotted with dead bodies and injured partygoers. The driver’s SUV was destroyed in the front.
According to the Associated Press, a young man wearing a black hoodie was seen with his back against a chain-link fence, a security guard by his side, and onlookers yelling and cursing at him in a video that went viral on social media
According to AP, the man held his palm to his head and murmured, “I’m sorry.”
Steve Rai, the interim chief of police in Vancouver, stated that the individual in custody was a “lone male” who was “known to police in certain circumstances,” but he declined to comment on the video.
Police stated the suspect had mental health problems and ruled out that it was a terrorist act.
Families, kids, and neighbors from all over Vancouver had come to the festival, ready to enjoy the pleasant spring evening, not realizing the horror that was about to happen.
Instead, before paramedics could arrive, onlookers hurried to administer first aid, turning the street into an impromptu triage center.
Carayn Nulada, a bystander, reported that she used her body to protect her granddaughter and grandson from the SUV after dragging them off the street. According to her, her daughter had a close call.
“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.”
While attending the event, James Cruzat, a business owner from Vancouver, heard a car rev its engine and then “a loud noise, like a loud bang,” which at first he believed to be a gunshot.
“We saw people on the road crying, others were like running, shouting, or even screaming, asking for help.”