BURST
The man who allegedly plowed through a crowd enjoying a Filipino festival in southeast Vancouver Sunday, killing 11 , lost his brother to murder last year.
Kai-ji Adam Lo, charged Sunday with eight counts of murder, had dozens of interactions with police related to his deteriorating mental health.
Last year he wrote on a fundraising page to cover his brother Alexander’s funeral costs that “it pains me deeply to put these words down, but my brother has been taken from us in a senseless act of violence, something we never saw coming.”
“Our reality has abruptly shifted. Despite our disagreements, the harsh truth that he’s no longer with us hits me with an overwhelming force,” Adam Lo said.
The body of Alexander Lo, 31, was found in a home near Knight Street and East 33rd Avenue about 1 a.m. on Jan. 28, 2024.
Dwight William Kematch, 39, was arrested at the house and later charged with second-degree murder.
Lo wrote about how devastated his family was as he thanked donors for contributing more than $9,000 for his brother’s funeral.
“I’m burdened with remorse for not spending more time with him,” he said. “I implore you to keep his soul in your thoughts and prayers.”
Months later, in August, he again asked the public for donations to help his family after his mother attempted suicide and ended up in hospital for a month.
“The unimaginable grief brought upon my mother is something that is worse than my own sadness. For she brought him into this world, only for him to leave abruptly, it is a sadness I cannot being to express,” he said. “She lost a son already and is on the verge of losing her home. This has driven her to attempt to take her own life.”
Lo had no prior criminal record, according to the online court database.
Sources told Postmedia that a family member had contacted a hospital psych ward hours before Sunday’s attack because of Lo’s deteriorating mental health. It’s not known what action, if any, was taken. He was believed to be suffering from delusions and paranoia.
Police said they’ve had significant interactions with Lo — as did health care professionals — due to his mental health issues. Some were recent.
Politicians of all stripes who have commented on the mass tragedy at the Lapu Lapu festival have been asked about support for people with serious mental health problems.
Premier David Eby said Sunday the attacker was obviously “profoundly ill.”
“We have a huge need in the province for interventionist mental health services,” he said, noting that the province just opened secure involuntary beds at Surrey pretrial jail.
“I was really pleased that we got those beds open in a very short period of time,” Eby said. “But it’s just the start.”
However, he also said that in terms of the Lapu Lapu killings, “it’s important for investigators or others to go into this with an open mind, to provide the answers to the public, to everybody that they find, so that we can ensure that we have the systems in place to prevent this kind of thing from happening.”
“In some cases, that may be a change in how the city does security for events. It maybe a change in health care response. We don’t know the story of why or what led up to this man taking the horrific action that he did,” Eby said.
“There are so many questions that I have. There are so many questions that British Columbians have about how that could take place, how we could get to that moment, and as we learn those answers, we’ll take the action that’s necessary to ensure that it can’t happen again.”
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