Officials say driver in Vancouver festival attack had been under mental health team’s care

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The man accused of barreling his sport-utility vehicle through a Filipino heritage festival crowd over the weekend, killing 11 people and injuring dozens, had been under the care of a mental health team before the attack, authorities said Tuesday.

Kai-Ji Adam Lo, 30, was being supervised by a team at Vancouver Coastal Health under the British Columbia Mental Health Act, which allows for involuntary treatment of those suffering from mental illness if they pose a danger to themselves or others, according to the province’s Ministry of Health.

“There was no indication of violence in this individual’s presentation to the VCH team,” the ministry said. “To the care team’s knowledge, there was no recent change in his condition or noncompliance with his treatment plan that would’ve warranted him needing to be hospitalized involuntarily.”

Here’s what to know about the attack.

The victims included 3 members of a Colombian family

Three members of a family of Colombian immigrants have been identified among the 11 people killed. Vancouver resident Alejandro Samper said he was getting ready for work on Saturday night when he received a call from his sister’s fiancé about a “terrible accident,” and he rushed to the scene of the Lapu Lapu Day festival in Vancouver.

His sister Glitza Daniela Samper, his mother Glitza Maria Caicedo and his father Daniel Samper had been struck and killed by an SUV that plowed through the crowd at the Filipino cultural event.

“I’m just destroyed,” Samper said Tuesday. “My whole world’s taken away from me.”

Samper said the family came to Canada in the early 2000s, in part to escape violence in Colombia, and he’s now trying to understand what happened and why.

“My parents sacrificed everything in Colombia, their careers, their lifestyle, everything to give us a better future here in Canada,” he said. “It just doesn’t make any sense. Canada is supposed to be a safe place.”

Among the other victims were a 5-year-old girl and her parents. Some 16 people remained in hospitals Tuesday, health officials said. Seven were in critical condition and three in serious condition, including a 22-month-old, police said.

Investigators said Tuesday they are questioning some 200 witnesses and canvassing for surveillance video in a 25-block radius from the scene.

The attack puts a spotlight on mental health care

Lo has been charged for now with eight counts of second-degree murder. He has.a significant history of interactions with police and health care professionals related to mental health, according to Vancouver police, including one interaction in another jurisdiction the day before the attack.

Vancouver police spokesperson Steve Addison has declined to provide details about that encounter. But, he said, it was not criminal, did not appear to warrant involuntary mental health care, and he did not believe any information about it had been passed along to Vancouver police before Saturday’s attack.

“In my experience it’s not something that would warrant proactive outreach,” Addison said Tuesday.

Vancouver Coastal Health, one of five regional health authorities in British Columbia, confirmed in a written statement that Lo had been under care while on leave from a treatment facility as he transitioned back into the community. Such teams can return patients to a hospital if they fail to follow their treatment plans.

“There was no indication this person was not following their treatment plan or presented a public safety risk,” the statement said.

British Columbia Premier David Eby said he would order a public inquiry if the law enforcement investigation fails to provide full answers about Lo or about the events leading up to the attack.

In remarks to the legislature Tuesday he acknowledged the province needs an “urgent expansion of mental health supports.” There are 2,000 beds in the province that are available for doctors and nurses to use the Mental Health Act to hold people involuntarily, he said.

The Filipino community reels from the attack

Members of Vancouver’s rapidly growing Filipino community say the attack was all the more devastating for coming at an event that celebrated their culture and togetherness. The Lapu Lapu Day festival honors Datu Lapu-Lapu, an Indigenous chieftain who fought back against Spanish explorers in the 16th century.

“We felt … the whole day that it’s a fun celebration, that people are happy being together,” said Bennet Miemban-Ganata, owner of the popular Plato Filipino restaurant in Vancouver, as she fought back tears during an interview. “We were just there to have fun, to know that we have each other in a foreign land.”

RJ Aquino, chair of the nonprofit Filipino BC, which promotes Filipino Canadian heritage, described it as a festival designed to share their culture. Plus, he said, “Everybody also just loves having a big party.”

“The Filipino community knows how to be resilient,” Aquino said. “How that manifests this time around — from a tragedy we’ve never experienced, on a scale like this — we’re going to see how it plays out, and I’m going to make sure we come out of this stronger.”