Villanueva shares videos of chaotic scenes in Vancouver
MANILA, Philippines — Victims’ bodies, as well as shoes and other personal belongings, were found scattered in a street lined with food trucks after the carnage in a Vancouver street party left 11 people dead.
This was shown in the videos shared by the office of Sen. Joel Villanueva on Monday, shot moments after the tragedy, which tinged the Lapu-Lapu Festival commemorating a 16th-century anti-colonial chief who killed Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan.
Villanueva is one of the Filipino lawmakers calling for a swift, thorough investigation into the incident.
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Rescue teams and bystanders could also be seen tending to the victims lying on the ground after a 30-year-old driver rammed his black Audi SUV against a crowd of festival-goers in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood.
Agatha Mari, a Vancouver resident who was in the area before the incident, also reported that there was even a baby under a food truck.
“I have no words,” Mari said in a Facebook post on Sunday.
Moments before tragedy
“This was supposed to be a happy Filipino gathering,” another Vancouver resident, Jomie DeLeon Gaffud, said in a Facebook post on Sunday.
Gaffud said they left after the performance of the Black Eyed Peas, or about ten minutes before the tragedy.
“I am so thankful that we’re safe,” she said. “But I feel sorry for all the victims and their loved ones.”
“It’s heartbreaking and ironic that one of the songs performed … says, ‘People killin’, people dyin’, children hurtin’, I hear them cryin’… where’s the love?,” said festival attendee Charina Colmenares in a Facebook post on Monday, referring to Black Eyed Peas’ song “Where is the Love.”
“We had no idea that a single split-second decision — going out through a different direction and changing our original plan — would save us from danger,” Colmenares said.
