Rosadene Alcala Apeles was thinking of packing their jewelry booth at the end of the Lapu-Lapu Day festival just over a month ago when they spotted an SUV driving very quickly towards them. Apeles says their table was located close to the unprotected barrier that closed off 43rd Avenue for food trucks and vendors at the festival. "I saw that black SUV — it was coming in pretty hot, and I felt like, this is a school zone.
Why is it going so fast?" they told CBC's On the Coast host Gloria Macarenko. "And then the car just didn't stop." Apeles heard tires screeching.
And then the car raced out of view. They soon realized they had just witnessed the first injury and the first casualty that took place that evening. 'I am a different person than I was' It's been just over a month since the Lapu-Lapu Day festival tragedy occurred on April 26.
Eleven people were killed, and dozens more were injured. The victims include a mother visiting her sons from the Philippines, a family that had come to Canada to escape violence in Colombia, another family that left behind a 16-year-old son who had stayed home that day, and a high school teacher. Kai-Ji Adam Lo, 30, has since been charged with eight counts of second-degree murder in connection with the crash.
Witnesses and those who were injured at the event say they are still recovering — mentally and physically — from what they saw and experienced. "I think that fundamentally I am a different person than I was at the start of that day,".
