In January final 12 months, Cirque du Soleil usher Alexander Lo made his remaining public submit on his Fb timeline, selling the circus’ Kooza present.
4 days later, his brother responded. “Brother, we are going to get to see this collectively someday,” wrote Adam Kai-Ji Lo.
However he knew it wasn’t to be.
Alexander Lo had already been discovered useless in an East Vancouver residence on Jan. 28, 2024, the day after his Fb submit, police stated. Dwight William Kematch was promptly arrested and charged with second-degree homicide, in a case that’s the topic of a publication ban.
The killing was a part of a collection of tumultuous occasions that upended the Lo household, culminating final weekend with Adam Lo’s arrest on homicide prices after the Lapu Lapu Day competition tragedy that killed 11 folks in Vancouver, lower than three kilometres from the household residence.
Paperwork, interviews, social media and different accounts present the household was wracked by Alexander Lo’s killing, monetary battles, what Adam Lo referred to as a suicide try by their mom, and his personal descent into psychological sickness that included time in involuntary remedy. Pageant patrons and distributors in the meantime described how a day of celebration and pleasure for the Filipino group was reworked right into a barely conceivable scene of tragedy.
Hanging over the Lo household was the dying of David Lo on Dec. 31, 2001. Social media posts confirmed Alexander and Adam Lo continued to mourn their father.
“Dad I miss you on a regular basis there’s no someday that I don’t take into consideration you,” Alexander posted across the twenty second anniversary of his father’s dying.
A month later, with Alexander useless too, Adam Lo wrote on the submit: “Brother, you all the time talked about about Dad. Now that you’re gone, I’ll do my greatest to ensure you are near him. You can be near him, the place he’s resting now. Be at peace collectively.”
The killing was Vancouver’s first murder of 2024, and Adam Lo launched a GoFundMe fundraiser that raised greater than $90,000 to cowl funeral prices.
“Our actuality has abruptly shifted. Regardless of our disagreements, the tough fact that he’s now not with us hits me with an amazing power,” Adam Lo wrote.
He stated he was “burdened with regret” and that his mom, Lisa Lo, carried “indescribable sorrow for a son she introduced into this world, solely to see him depart so immediately.”
The killing got here amid a interval of economic wrangling for Lo and his mom.
In November 2023, they filed a case in small claims courtroom claiming about $35,000 from a Vancouver builder to repair what they stated was incomplete or insufficient work on a laneway home at their residence on East forty fourth Avenue.
Members of the Vancouver Police forensics group study the scene the place a car drove right into a crowd at a Lapu Lapu Day avenue competition Saturday night in Vancouver, Sunday, April 27, 2025.
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The builder, Martin Tang, had a special story — he stated the Lo’s defaulted on $1,800 in curiosity on a $30,000 building mortgage they took out from his firm to undertake the work, and he lodged a counterclaim in search of each quantities.
Tang stated in an interview the laneway residence was for Alexander Lo to dwell in, and Tang believed that it was he who was mentally in poor health and meant to dwell “separate” from his brother and mom in the primary residence.
Adam Lo, Tang stated, “appeared to be fairly regular at the moment.” He stated Lo had a job after graduating college and acted like a “regular younger man” who spoke English properly; Lo stated on his Fb profile that he was from Kaohsiung in Taiwan.
In fall of 2023, Tang stated he and his spouse went to the laneway residence with out realizing Alexander Lo was already residing inside — he stated when his spouse discovered him in a bed room, Lo turned “excited” and slapped her, then scratched their truck.
He stated they referred to as the police; Adam and Lisa Lo described the incident as “attainable trespass” of their lawsuit.
Tang stated he later realized that Alexander Lo had been murdered and three months later the lawsuit was settled, Adam and Lisa Lo paying Tang $8,000.
That September, Adam Lo launched one other fundraiser.
His mom, he wrote on the GoFundMe web page, had tried to kill herself and was in such monetary problem that she was liable to dropping the household residence, which BC Evaluation signifies is price $2.15 million.
“I feared I had misplaced the one member of the family I’ve left,” Lo wrote, posting a photograph of Lisa Lo in a hospital mattress. “Her suspected overdose got here as a shock, however I knew she was grieving the lack of my brother and struggling immensely together with her funds.”
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The fundraiser solely yielded just a few donations, and each GoFundMe pages have been taken down.
Adam Lo, too, was struggling.
B.C.’s Well being Ministry stated Lo had been beneath the care of a psychological well being group with Vancouver Coastal Well being and was “being adopted intently” beneath the Psychological Well being Act, though it didn’t put a timeframe on his care.
There was nothing to point a change in his situation that warranted involuntarily hospitalization, the ministry stated.
However Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim stated later that Lo was on “prolonged go away” — a time period referring to permitted go away from a state of involuntary care.
Interim Vancouver Police Chief Steve Rai in the meantime stated Lo had quite a few interactions and “substantive contact” with police and well being employees over psychological well being points.
On April 1, Lo modified his Fb profile image to Batman surveying a darkish and stormy cityscape. “Vancouver is Gotham,” he wrote. His earlier profile image had been a winged angel, all in white.
On Friday, April 25, Lo had one remaining interplay with police, a day earlier than the Lapu Lapu Day competition.
Vancouver Police spokesman Sgt. Steve Addison stated the incident, which concerned police in a neighbouring jurisdiction, “was not prison in nature and it didn’t rise to the extent the place it required psychological well being intervention.”
Volunteer Noa Sison arrived early on the Lapu Lapu Day competition web site in South Vancouver on Saturday, April 26.
He was within the space west of Fraser Avenue at round 7:30 a.m. There was lots to do, establishing tents after which serving to attendees have the most effective day attainable.
It was the second 12 months for the Vancouver competition, named in honour of the Filipino chief whose forces defeated and killed Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. However the competition was on a much bigger scale than final’s 12 months’s rain-soaked occasion, and organizers billed it as “a primary of its variety multi-block get together.”
East forty third Avenue, operating alongside the grounds of John Oliver Secondary Faculty, was lined with meals vehicles promoting Filipino meals, bubble tea, spiral fried potatoes and extra.
The varsity grounds hosted the primary stage, a basketball event, cultural programming and stalls by group organizations, whereas different festivities occupied again parking heaps stretching from East forty third Avenue to East forty seventh Avenue. The neighbourhood is a core space for Metro Vancouver’s 140,000-strong Filipino group.
“The vibe was enjoyable,” stated Sison. “I do know a whole lot of my buddies went. It’s very joyful.”
Social media pictures posted all through the day present giant crowds, smiling faces, vibrant hats and costumes.
Vancouver Police look over a black automobile believed to be concerned in an incident the place a car drove right into a crowd on the Lapu Lapu Pageant in Vancouver on Saturday April 26, 2025.
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Municipal, provincial and federal political figures had been additionally there. Premier David Eby stated he attended together with his daughter, taking to the stage with legislator Mable Elmore, who’s of Filipino heritage.
“Once I take into consideration what’s core to my experiences with the Filipino group, it’s household, it’s love, it’s celebration and that’s what (the competition) was — music and meals and pleasure,” Eby stated later.
The temper was gentle — Vancouver metropolis councillors held up pastries in social media images, whereas others posed for images with the insect mascot for Jollibee, the Filipino fast-food franchise.
Native hairdresser Donna Fathi stated she began livestreaming the occasion round midday, eager to share the joy of the day.
She advised viewers “now it’s time to come back down earlier than all of the meals sells out, which often occurs at Filipino festivals as a result of everybody goes for the meals.”
“The crowds stored rising and rising and rising by the afternoon,” she stated in an interview.
Clothes vendor Kris Pangilinan flew out from Toronto to promote on the competition.
“We had a good time. Everybody was laughing, smiling. It was too good in a method. It was sunny, not a cloud within the sky,” he stated.
By 7 p.m. the competition’s musical headliners, rapper apl.de.ap and J-Rey Soul of the Black Eyed Peas, took to the primary stage because the closing act of the day.
Each members of the Filipino group, they launched right into a joyous rendition of “Let’s Get It Began,” the gang leaping in time to the acquainted beat.
Fathi was there in a bunch of 9, together with her husband and daughter. “The entire grass was coated. You might not see the grass. It was a tremendous turnout, nice live performance,” she stated.
Federal NDP Chief Jagmeet Singh arrived late within the day, amid the closing levels of the federal marketing campaign. He posed for images round 7:30 p.m. as apl.de.ap and J-Rey Soul belted out the Black Eyed Peas’ “Mabuti.” He left quickly afterwards, round 8 p.m. Attendance by then was beginning to skinny, however the enjoying subject in entrance of the primary stage and East forty third was nonetheless crowded.
Vancouver resident Van Pham had turned up together with his Filipino spouse and younger son at round 7:15 p.m. It was nonetheless busy sufficient that that they had a tough time discovering parking.
However, he stated, “you can inform there have been a whole lot of distributors that had already left at the moment,” so he and his household went to the primary strip of meals vehicles on forty third Avenue. “This was the busiest place within the competition,” he stated. The household ordered a twister fried potato, “twirled round a stick.”
“The meals vehicles are busy. Folks had been lining up. There was music. It was good. They had been simply having good time, having meals,” he stated.
However they didn’t keep lengthy, and by 8 p.m. they had been grocery procuring a few blocks away from the competition strip.
Pangilinan stated that at round 7:50 p.m. folks started flooding out of the competition grounds on the college through forty third.
“It simply seemed like a wave of individuals slowly leaving the fenced space. And so they want, sneak between the meals vehicles and simply form of discover their method out.”
A video posted on Fb timestamped 8:02 p.m. exhibits crowds streaming down the road, largely heading east in direction of Fraser. Some meals truck distributors had their shutters down, however others had been nonetheless serving prospects.
Police say that at round 8:14 p.m. a black Audi SUV appeared on the western finish of the competition space.
Pangilinan stated it initially crept by means of an entrance on forty third Ave, slowly making its method by means of the gang in a method that appeared “simply regular” for the tip of a competition.
“The car began slowly making its well beyond the primary two or three cubicles, after which it side-swiped somebody on the suitable, after which when it obtained in entrance of my sales space, it accelerated actually shortly,” he stated.
“He began to select up pace, after which I used to be like, ‘Oh, he’s actually quick,’ and earlier than I knew it, it went proper into the gang.”
Pangilinan stated there have been “dozens of our bodies getting hit by the car and flying within the air.” He described the sound as they landed on the pavement.
“It was form of surreal … one thing out of a film,” he stated.
He later watched because the desk the place he had been displaying clothes on the market was used as a stretcher to hold victims to ambulances.
Nic Magtajas and Jihed Issa had been working at a retailer dealing with the competition and initially had their backs to the scene after they heard an engine revving.
Magtejas turned to see the SUV roaring by means of the road.
“I noticed a bunch of individuals go over, go excessive up from the influence of hitting the automobile,” stated Magtajas, 19. “Folks had been screaming,” stated Issa, 17.
“I ran exterior to the road and I used to be making an attempt to determine what occurred. I made it to midway into the road, seemed round (and) there was lots of people panicking, folks on the ground — our bodies.”
Victims and particles had been strewn over about 100 metres of East forty third.
On the jap finish of the carnage was the black SUV, its entrance finish caved in, the hood buckled. A cap was wedged into the wreckage.
Bystanders apprehended the motive force, who police stated tried to flee the scene. Video of the second exhibits him up towards the chain-link fence exterior the varsity, lower than 50 metres from the wrecked automobile.
Hip-hop artist Jacob Bureros was among the many group who ran down the suspect.
“I ran on this aspect, there have been others operating on that aspect, they usually cornered him,” he stated in an interview.
“I jumped the fence and got here round, and we had been there, and everybody was actually indignant, and he obtained hit, after which different folks form of protected him and stood round him in order that the group couldn’t take out group justice on him. Everybody was actually indignant.”
Bureros stated the person stored asking folks to not damage him. He noticed “no regret, no concern, no remorse.”
Candles burn at a memorial for the Lapu Lapu Day block get together tragedy in Vancouver, B.C., on Sunday, April 27, 2025.
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Movies present a few males, together with one in a safety uniform, separating the suspect from the screaming crowd gathered round him. “That’s him”, “Smile you piece of shit”, “You realize what you probably did?,” they shout.
“I’m sorry,” the person responds, touching his hand to his head.
Among the many 11 folks killed had been teacher-counsellor Kira Salim, artist Jenifer Darbellay, and two households of three — Realtor Richard Le, Lin Hoang and their five-year-old daughter Katie Le; and Colombian immigrants Daniel Samper, his spouse Glitza Maria Caicedo, and their grownup daughter Glitza Daniela Samper.
Van Pham stated he was driving down Fraser Avenue at round 8:20 p.m. together with his household after they noticed about 5 police vehicles dashing by.
“It may have been any one among us,” he stated.
In August 2020, Alexander Lo had posted a photograph taken at Canada Place, the waters of Burrard Inlet within the background.
“Household time!” he captioned the image exhibiting him together with his mom, arm in arm with a good-looking younger man on her different aspect, trim in athletic put on with short-cropped hair and a slight smile.
Adam Lo is simply recognizable as the identical man towards the fence nearly 5 years later — a lot heavier, his bushy hair dishevelled, his eyes staring extensive.
He has been charged with eight counts of second-degree homicide, and police have stated extra prices are anticipated. On Friday, a decide ordered a psychological well being evaluation to see if Lo is match to face trial.
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