(CTN News) – Vancouver police blamed the suspect’s mental instability for the car ramming that killed eleven people at a Filipino heritage celebration. A black Audi SUV driver assaulted Lapu Lapu Day participants around 8 p.m. Saturday.

Interim Chief Steve Rai told reporters, “This is the darkest day in Vancouver’s history.” In custody, the individual has had many interactions with law enforcement and mental health professionals.

After image footage from a South Vancouver food truck route reveals the dead and injured. Kris Pangilinan, who opened his pop-up lifestyle store and clothes, saw the vehicle pass the barricade before speeding past a crowded event area.

He said they chased him after hearing bodies hit the car. “Oh, hey,” I said as he hit a person to his right. He stated, “He accelerated quickly.” It accelerates like a racecar.

He outpaced the crowd. Only shouting and sobbing as people crashed and flew above food trucks remain. It launched pins like a bowling ball.

Pangilinan asked, “Does someone hate Filipinos?”

Witnesses held the suspect until police came. A 30-year-old Vancouverite was arrested. Rai said onlookers detained the man. A security guard and others shout and curse at a black-hooded boy with his back to a chain-link fence. I apologise,” he says, holding hands.

Prime Minister Mark Carney cancelled his first campaign event before Monday’s elections. Mothers, fathers, sons, siblings, and children died last night. Carney said the families are most afraid. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims, Filipino Canadians, and Vancouverites.

A van driver murdered ten Toronto pedestrians in 2018. Eight females and two males died. After his incarceration, Alek Minassian told investigators he was part of an online network of sexually dissatisfied men who assaulted prostitutes.

Witnesses said they jumped.

After steering her granddaughter and grandson off the road, Carayn Nulada shielded them from the SUV. She described her daughter’s near escape. Nulada showed crying children and dead victims behind cars or on the ground. “The vehicle struck her arm, causing her to fall; however, she rose, searching for us due to her fear,” she said.

The hurried people made my child wince.

Nulada searched the Vancouver General Hospital emergency room early Sunday morning for her brother, who had many fractures from the assault.

The doctors gave the family his wedding ring in a pill container and said he was stable but needed surgery. Vancouver entrepreneur James Cruzat mistook a vehicle start and a “loud noise, akin to a significant bang,” for a gunshot during the party.

Many people were crying, fleeing, calling for help, and yelling on the street. We found bodies while exploring. Cruzat said some died and others were injured.

Vancouver Mayor Kenneth Sim promised social media updates

Sim said, “The tragic incident during today’s Lapu Lapu Day celebration has profoundly shocked and saddened me.” We grieve with Vancouver’s Filipino community and all victims.

The large Filipino population in Vancouver honoured a national hero.

Vancouver had 38,600 Filipinos in 2021, 5.9% of the population.

Today celebrates Indigenous leader Datu Lapu-Lapu, who fought Spanish explorers in the Philippines in the 16th century. Organisers of the second-year Vancouver event say he “embodies the essence of indigenous resistance, a formidable influence that contributed to the formation of Filipino identity amidst colonisation.”

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. offered victims’ families his sympathies.

The Philippine Consulate General in Vancouver is investigating and supporting victims and their families with Canadian authorities.

The Foreign Affairs Department said, “We pray for their ongoing strength and resilience, and we acknowledge the 1 million-strong Filipino community in Canada.”