Driver in Vancouver attack had been under mental health team’s care: officials

30/04/2025

City workers begin to clear the scene where a driver killed multiple people last week during a Filipino community festival on April 29, in Vancouver, British Columbia. (AP)

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 30, (AP): 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.” 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.