Blue Jays' release official statement on Lapu Lapu Day tragedy in Vancouver
Photo credit: https://x.com/BlueJays
The Toronto Blue Jays organization released an official statement expressing their sadness and condolences on the Lapu Lapu Day tragedy in Vancouver BC today on social media.
The Toronto Blue Jays share their heartfelt to the victims, their families, and everyone directly impacted by the horrific tragedy at the Lapu Lapu Day celebration in Vancouver. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Filipino-Canadian community and to everyone to Vancouver in this difficult time.
For those of you who haven't heard, a man drove a vehicle into a crowd at a Filipino heritage festival in Vancouver, killing at least nine people and injuring an unknown number of others, police said Sunday.
The vehicle entered the street at 8:14 p.m. on Saturday and struck people attending the Lapu Lapu Day festival, the Vancouver Police Department said in a social media post.
Several other people were injured, but the exact number of casualties wasn't immediately available.
A 30-year-old Vancouver man was arrested at the scene and the department's Major Crime Section is overseeing the investigation, police said.
«At this time, we are confident that this incident was not an act of terrorism,» the police department posted early Sunday.
Interim Vancouver Police Chief Steve Rai told a news conference that the man was arrested after initially being apprehended by bystanders.
Video circulating on social media shows a young man in a black hoodie with his back against a chain-link fence, alongside a security guard and surrounded by bystanders screaming and swearing at him.
«I'm sorry,» the man says, holding his hand to his head.
Rai declined to comment on the video, but said the person in custody was a «lone male» who was «known to police in certain circumstances.»
The festival was being held in a South Vancouver neighborhood. Video posted on social media showed victims and debris strewn across a long stretch of road, with at least seven people lying immobile on the ground. A black SUV with a crumpled front section could be seen in still photos from the scene.
Carayn Nulada said that she pulled her granddaughter and grandson off the street and used her body to shield them from the SUV. She said that her daughter suffered a narrow escape.
«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.»
Nulada was in Vancouver General Hospital's emergency room early Sunday morning, trying to find news about her brother, who was run down in the attack and suffered multiple broken bones.
Doctors identified him by presenting the family with his wedding ring in a pill bottle and said that he was stable, but would be facing surgery.
James Cruzat, a Vancouver business owner, was at the event and heard a car rev its engine and then «a loud noise, like a loud bang» that he initially thought might be a gunshot.
«We saw people on the road crying, others were like running, shouting, or even screaming, asking for help. So we tried to go there just to check what was really actually happening until we found some bodies on the ground. Others were lifeless, others like, you know, injured,» Cruzat said.
Nic Magtajas described an SUV roaring through the crowd at high speed.
«I saw a bunch of people go over, go high up from the impact of hitting the car,» said Magtajas, 19.
Vancouver Mayor Kenneth Sim said in a social media post that the city would provide more information when possible.
«I am shocked and deeply saddened by the horrific incident at today's Lapu Lapu Day event,» Sim said. «Our thoughts are with all those affected and with Vancouver's Filipino community during this incredibly difficult time.»
Vancouver had more than 38,600 residents of Filipino heritage in 2021, representing 5.9% of the city's total population, according to Statistics Canada, the agency that conducts the national censes.
Lapu Lapu Day celebrates Datu Lapu-Lapu, an Indigenous chieftain who stood up to Spanish explorers who came to the Philippines in the 16th century.
The organizers of the Vancouver event said that he «represents the soul of native resistance, a powerful force that helped shape the Filipino identity in the face of colonization.»
SOURCE: The Canadian National Press
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AVRIL 27 | 42 ANSWERS Blue Jays' release official statement on Lapu Lapu Day tragedy in Vancouver Should the Blue Jays and Yankees hold a pregame condolences message to the people of Vancouver following this terrible tragedy? | ||
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| No | 4 | 9.5 % |
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