Kai-ji Adam Lo – Suspect for the Vancouver Festival Tragedy

At the height of the Lapu-Lapu Festival — a celebration of Filipino heritage and resilience — families gathered under the soft April sunlight, shopping, laughing, and reconnecting. It was meant to be a day of joy, unity, and community.

Instead, it ended in unimaginable horror.

Kai-ji Adam Lo drove his car into the crowd, killing at least eight people and injuring over twenty others. Witnesses described a slow approach at first — almost innocuous, as if a vendor was trying to find parking. Then came the sound of an engine revving, followed by screams.

“He was going slow, so I thought maybe it was a vendor loading up,” said Kris Pangilinan, a clothing merchant whose booth was near the attack. “Then I heard the engine rev, and boom — he hit dozens of people.”

In the aftermath of the tragedy, we at 3Narratives believe it’s important to explore two lenses:
one focused on the perpetrator, the killer, and another on what we as a society might learn to prevent future tragedies.

Narrative One: The Killer

There is little room for ambiguity when lives are lost so violently. Kai-ji Adam Lo should be locked away for the rest of his life — not simply for punishment, but because society has a fundamental obligation to protect itself from individuals who demonstrate lethal disregard for human life.

Every one of the victims was an innocent person celebrating a day of cultural pride. Their lives — families, dreams, futures — were stolen in seconds. The community deserves justice that matches the gravity of the crime.

There’s a grim tendency in modern discourse to search for complexity where sometimes there must only be moral clarity. Driving into a festival crowd — regardless of background, motives, or personal struggles — is indefensible.

Some crimes tear holes in the social fabric so deeply that rehabilitation, understanding, or forgiveness are luxuries we cannot afford. For society to function, consequences must be absolute.

A killer chose violence. A killer extinguished lives. A killer must be separated from the rest of us — forever.

Narrative Two: What We Can Learn to Prevent Future Killers

Yet even while acknowledging this — especially while acknowledging it — we must ask harder questions.

Who was Kai-ji Adam Lo before he became a killer?
Was there a moment when intervention could have altered his tragedy?

Reports confirm that Lo had prior contact with police. Mental health evaluations were conducted at least once. He was not invisible. He was noticed. And somehow, despite the warning signs, a preventable tragedy unfolded.

The uncomfortable truth is this: violence of this kind rarely explodes from nowhere.
It grows quietly — through isolation, untreated mental illness, anger, resentment, and disconnection from community.

According to the American Psychological Association (APA):

“Early intervention in mental health can prevent escalation into violent behavior. Most people living with mental illness are not violent, but unaddressed cases, combined with other risk factors, can pose dangers.”

The World Health Organization adds:

“Violence is often preventable when communities work together to address mental health, loneliness, and early warning signs rather than reacting only after tragedy strikes.”

We must be better at recognizing when someone is unravelling — and brave enough to act. That means investing in mental health services. That means educating communities to spot and respond to warning signs early. That means refusing to leave people alone inside the prisons of their own minds.

It also requires us to resist the temptation to dismiss every killer as simply “evil.”
Most killers are made long before they kill.
The pathway is often visible, but ignored.

The victims deserve not only justice after their deaths, but a society committed to making sure fewer deaths like theirs happen at all.

The Third Narrative: Yours

At 3Narratives, we present two ways of seeing — but we leave the final story to you.
Today is a day of mourning and loss, and my heart goesout to the Filipino community.
Society must face uncomfortable truths about its failures.

You decide.

(c) 2025 3Narratives.com
“Two sides. One story. You make the third.”

Further Reading and Resources

• Vancouver Police Department Statement on Lapu Lapu Day Incident
• City of Vancouver’s Four Pillars Drug Strategy
• Mental Health Support Services in Vancouver
• Community Support for Filipino Canadians