B.C. premier commits to supporting families as Lapu-Lapu festival death toll rises to 11
VANCOUVER — B.C. Premier David Eby has shared a statement Sunday, April 27, about the recent tragedy at the Lapu Lapu Day Festival.
“Here’s a community that’s done nothing but give, has been overlooked in terms of their contributions – to this province, to this city, to this country – is finally having an event where their culture is upheld and celebrated,” Eby told reporters. “And it’s destroyed by a single individual.”
The province is currently focusing on support for victims and their families, but without providing many details, Eby assured that action will be taken, whether it involves changes to event security or healthcare response.
“What we know right now is 11 people have died, that there are many more injured, that this individual intentionally drove a vehicle into a crowd of people– what we don’t know is why,” he said.
“My commitment is that we will support the police in finding those answers. We’ll support the public in knowing as best we can what happened, as well as how we’re going to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”
Eby added that he has met up with the Philippine Consul General in Vancouver to support the expat community in B.C., as well as identifying Filipino or dual nationals who need additional support.
“Right now, it’s hard to imagine another celebration[…] We’ll work with the city, we’ll work with police to ensure that events have the systems in place to keep people safe while they’re celebrating, and we will as a community come out of this stronger.”
The Vancouver Police Department held its own press conference earlier in the day, sharing that the individual was known to police and health care workers for interactions related to mental health.
Deputy Chief Const. Steve Rai called this incident “the darkest day in Vancouver’s history.”