At a Lapu Lapu roadside memorial: 'I hear the victims in my nightmares'
You can see it from blocks away, a sea of flowers, flickering candles and hand-drawn signs stretch along the sidewalk.
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A single trumpet note floats in the air — slow, solemn — as Charles Shu, a local musician, plays Amazing Grace at the corner of East 41st and Fraser Street just before 11 a.m. on May 1.
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'I came here to blow the trumpet for everyone impacted — for healing, for comfort, and for hope for the future,' Shu said afterward, lowering his instrument.
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This is the largest of four spontaneous roadside memorials, stretching several hundred feet along the northern fence of John Oliver Secondary, that have emerged since the attack. They honour the 11 lives lost during the Lapu Lapu Day festival — now one of Vancouver's deadliest acts of mass violence.
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Throughout the morning, dozens of mourners stop by. Despite the steady hum of traffic at the busy intersection, most who gather at the memorial remain still, tearful, heads bowed. Some light candles or sticks of incense. Others whisper prayers into the wind.
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Among them is Sofia Almonguera, a 19-year-old from Surrey who moves through the crowd in tears, cradling a bouquet of pink lilies. She slips past the City of Vancouver barricades and steps toward the heart of the memorial.
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She stops before a felt-coloured sign that reads: 'This is too much to hold, so we hold it together.' Above it, the Filipino flag pinned to the chain-link fence flutters in the breeze, brushing close to her face.
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Clutching the lilies to her chest, she stands motionless, eyes fixed on the growing mound of tributes. Then, slowly, she kneels, laying the flowers gently among the thousands already placed.
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'This feels personal,' she says. 'In the Filipino community, we call people uncle, cousin, even if they're not related by blood. And we mean it. That's why this tragedy — it's like it happened to family.'
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Nearby, Kenya Ford carefully places a handwritten poem among the sea of bouquets. It reads: 'For the injured, for the child, oh my heart, for the child, for whoever out there is listening, protection against senseless pain.' Her hands tremble as she places it at the memorial.
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'I was there,' Ford says. 'I wanted to do something. I had to do something.'
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Women pause at a memorial during a vigil on a provincial day of mourning for the victims of the vehicle-ramming attack at the Filipino community's Lapu Lapu Day festival last week, in Vancouver, on Friday, May 2, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck DD flag wire: true flag sponsored: false article_type: : sWebsitePrimaryPublication : publications/toronto_star bHasMigratedAvatar : false :
Winnipeg Free Press
18 hours ago
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VANCOUVER – The City of Vancouver says it will be moving items from a memorial near the location of April's deadly Lapu Lapu Day festival attack to another site at a nearby cemetery next week. The city says the decision to consolidate the roadside memorial at 43rd Avenue and Fraser Street with the other site at Mountain View Cemetery was made after consultations with victims and their families through the Vancouver Police Department's Victim Services. The city says the memorials have reflected collective grief and honoured the victims, their families and all those who were impacted by the April 26 tragedy, in which 11 people were killed and dozens injured when a vehicle sped through a crowd of festival patrons. It says in a news release that items from the roadside memorial will be moved next Wednesday morning, while things that can't be moved, such as wilted flowers, candles or glass, will be 'respectfully composted or recycled.' The city says community members who want to keep or move their personal items may do so themselves before next Wednesday. It says decisions about a permanent memorial will prioritize the wishes of the families who lost loved ones in the attack. 'The City of Vancouver continues to recognize the importance of spaces for expressions of remembrance and grief,' the release says. 'For those wishing to visit and pay their respects, the three memorial structures located at Mountain View Cemetery, will remain in place at this time.' Adam Kai-Ji Lo is facing 11 second-degree murder charges over the attack. He appeared last month in a Vancouver court as forensic psychiatrists testified at a hearing to determine if he is fit to stand trial. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 14, 2025.
CBC
3 days ago
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Mural in Vancouver's Mount Pleasant honours victims of Lapu-Lapu Day tragedy
On a hot, sunny August weekend, artist Mara Cortez's design comes to life, her arm making fluid motions against a brick building as she paints a bold new mural in Vancouver's Mount Pleasant neighbourhood. Balancing cool blues with bright, warm oranges and yellows, she creates the image of a boat filled with people, representing those who died at Vancouver's Lapu-Lapu Day festival in April. The boat itself is inspired by the manunggul jar, a pre-colonial burial jar from the Philippines. "We take care of our dead after they've passed, and we continue to do that," Cortez said. Eleven people were killed and many others injured on April 26 when the driver of a black SUV slammed into a crowd as the festival was winding down just after 8 p.m. The driver, 30-year-old Kai-Ji Adam Lo, has since been charged with 11 counts of second-degree murder. Since then, the local Filipino community has come together to heal in myriad ways — as have communities connected to the event across the globe. For Cortez, making art helps her to process grief. "Creating this piece actually helped me move through some of that, and heal," she said. The piece, titled Pagalala at Pagasa (Remembrance and Hope), was painted as part of Vancouver's Astro Arts Festival. She approached Filipino B.C., the organization that hosted Lapu-Lapu Day, to see if they'd sponsor the piece — and the group responded with an enthusiastic yes. The festival was named for an Indigenous resistance fighter in the Philippines who fought against Spanish colonization in the 16th century, and celebrates Filipino heritage and culture in Vancouver. "As the festival organizers, we thought it was important for us that we play a role in how the community heals," executive director Kristina Corpin-Moser said.
