Vehicle attack in Vancouver devastates a vibrant and growing Filipino community

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — For Bennet Miemban-Ganata, owner of a popular Filipino restaurant in Vancouver, the arrival of spring means a season of fiestas, bringing both good business and celebrations of culture.

From Filipino Restaurant Month in April to Filipino Heritage Month in June, there would be colorful clothes, folk dances and traditional food like crispy lumpia, marinated and grilled pork belly, and beef stew. And of course, there would be togetherness for Vancouver's rapidly growing Filipino community.

All that made Saturday night's vehicle-ramming attack on a large crowd at a Filipino block party all the more devastating.

“We felt ... the whole day that it’s a fun celebration, that people are happy being together,” Miemban-Ganata said as she fought back tears Monday during an interview at her restaurant, Plato Filipino. “We were just there to have fun, to know that we have each other in a foreign land.”

A black Audi SUV barreled down a closed, food-truck-lined street and struck people attending the Lapu Lapu Day festival, which celebrates Datu Lapu-Lapu, an Indigenous chieftain who stood up to Spanish explorers in the 16th century.

Eleven people were killed, including a 5-year-old girl and her parents. Thirty-two people were hurt. Seven were in critical condition and three were in serious condition at hospitals on Monday, Vancouver Police Department spokesperson Steve Addison said.

Authorities quickly ruled out terrorism. The driver, 30-year-old Kai-Ji Adam Lo, faces multiple counts of second-degree murder, police said, and he had a history of mental illness that had prompted law enforcement responses, including one the day before the attack. His brother was the victim of a homicide in 2024, and Lo wrote in an online fundraising appeal that he was devastated by that killing.

The festival is a testament to the growing presence of the Filipino community in the Vancouver area. Filipino-owned shops and restaurants, like Plato Filipino, have proliferated, especially in South Vancouver. Miemban-Ganata said her restaurant serves as a gathering place, one where people feel comfortable enough to leave their kids when they’re pinched for child care.

Over the weekend, British Columbia Premier David Eby vowed not to let the tragedy define the celebration and urged people to channel their rage into helping those affected.

“I don’t think there is a British Columbian that hasn’t been touched in some way by the Filipino community,” he said. “This is a community that gives and gives and yesterday was a celebration of their culture.”

Filipino immigration to Canada was heavily restricted until the 1960s, when Filipino immigrants began arriving to help offset labor shortages in Canada’s health care, garment and other industries, according to a Canadian Historical Association report. Now many work in finance, caregiving, real estate and other sectors.

Filipinos are the third-largest Asian immigrant population in Canada with nearly 1 million residents, and more than one-third arrived in the previous decade, according to the 2021 census. And roughly 175,000 live in British Columbia, mostly in the Vancouver area, where they make up a little more more than 5% of the population.

The community's growth helped prompt the formation in 2023 of Filipino BC, a nonprofit that seeks to foster Filipino Canadian heritage. Filipino BC has advocated for a Filipino cultural center and organized the first Lapu Lapu Day celebration last year. The festival is already so popular that it has attracted attendees from Seattle and Toronto, said RJ Aquino, chair of the organization's board.

“It's really a festival designed to celebrate and share our culture,” Aquino said. “Everybody also just loves having a big party.”

Aquino grew up in the Philippines and moved briefly to the U.S. as a teenager before settling in the Vancouver area in the 1990s. The Filipino community was small then — “It really did feel like everybody knew each other,” he said — and even now it's not uncommon to meet a stranger and learn that they're related through an aunt or uncle.

As he stood before a memorial of flowers and a white cross, he called the weekend "the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.” He had left the festival to have dinner with his family when he received a call about the attack and raced back.

The community's “first imperative,” he said, was “to just be present with each other and make sure we don't feel alone.” The city of Vancouver and Province of British Columbia had been active in offering support services, he noted.

“The Filipino community knows how to be resilient,” Aquino said. “How that manifests this time around — from a tragedy we've never experienced, on a scale like this — we're going to see how it plays out, and I'm going to make sure we come out of this stronger.”

Johnson reported from Seattle.

April Palma, center, helps a customer at Plato Filipino restaurant in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Wendell Gomez, left, places a candle at a memorial for victims after a vehicle drove into a crowd during a Filipino heritage festival in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Art hangs on a wall at Plato Filipino restaurant in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Renzo Javier, second from right, and John Eranzo, right, chat outside Plato Filipino restaurant in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

An attendee reacts at a memorial for victims after a vehicle drove into a crowd during a Filipino heritage festival in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

People shop at Sari-Sari Filipino Convenience Store in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

CLEVELAND (AP) — Rookie left-hander Parker Messick came within three outs of ending Cleveland's 45-year drought without a no-hitter.

Instead, he became the second Guardians pitcher in eight months to fall short in the ninth inning.

“I did my best. Maybe next time,” Messick said after Cleveland's 4-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday night.

Leody Taveras led off the ninth with a grounder that just eluded diving second baseman Juan Brito and went into right field for a single to break up Messick's no-hit bid.

Cleveland still has the longest current gap between no-hitters of any major league franchise. The team’s most recent one was Len Barker’s perfect game on May 15, 1981, against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Up to that point, Messick had faced only one batter over the minimum and silenced a Baltimore lineup that came into the game third in the American League in on-base percentage (.334).

Blaze Alexander followed with a line-drive single to center that ended Messick's night. The 25-year-old Messick was removed to a standing ovation from the crowd of 14,748.

“That was very special what we got to watch tonight. That’s an unbelievably talented lineup that he took a no-hitter into the ninth against and just continued to attack,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “He and (catcher Austin) Hedges were magnificent with their sequencing. With that arsenal, that was a beautiful game.”

It was the first time in 11 career starts that Messick went more than seven innings. He was the 54th overall pick in the 2022 amateur draft out of Florida State and made his big league debut last year.

Messick threw 112 pitches, 78 for strikes. The 69.6% strike rate was the third-highest of his career. He walked two and equaled a career best with nine strikeouts. He was charged with two runs in eight-plus innings.

Messick got ahead of hitters early with 21 first-pitch strikes to the 27 batters he faced. The 18 swings and misses also tied a career high.

Out of Messick's six-pitch repertoire, the most effective was the changeup. He threw it 29 times and got 22 strikes, including nine whiffs. His most-used pitch was his four-seam fastball, which he threw 43 times.

“I know they were looking for it. It's just, the bottom falls out of it when you've got late movement like that, especially when you’ve set it up with other pitches, the heaters and the curveballs and cutters — you have to take an outlier swing to it,” Hedges said of the changeup. “You could tell they were trying to, but it’s just that good of a pitch.”

The sinker was Messick's third-most frequent pitch in his first three starts this season, but he threw it only twice against the Orioles.

Hedges said he had the feeling it might be a special night when center fielder Steven Kwan caught Taylor Ward's deep flyball at the wall to end the third inning. José Ramírez — who had a two-run homer in the first — made a nice stop on a grounder by Coby Mayo deep in the hole at third to end the fifth.

“The crowd got pretty loud and that’s an awesome feeling when everybody gets into it. I was really trying to lock in every pitch,” Messick said. “Pretty much about the sixth inning on, I prayed between pretty much every inning and I just was telling myself to execute.”

Baltimore averted a shutout when Gunnar Henderson’s sacrifice fly against closer Cade Smith drove in Taveras. Pete Alonso hit an RBI double before Smith retired the final two batters with runners at second and third for his fourth save.

“The boys were into it the whole game. Once Leody got that hit, I equate it to a sniper in the NBA, where it only takes one to go in for everything to change," said Orioles first-year manager Craig Albernaz, who was Cleveland's bench coach in 2024 and associate manager last season. “Messick was on. He had all his pitches dialed in the strike zone. He did a great job changing speeds in all counts, (getting) weak contact. He was on tonight.”

It was the fourth time since Barker's gem that a single Cleveland pitcher carried a no-hitter into the ninth. John Farrell went eight innings on May 4, 1989, against Kansas City before Kevin Seitzer broke it up with a single after Willie Wilson reached on an error.

Carlos Carrasco went 8 2/3 innings against Tampa Bay on July 1, 2015, and Gavin Williams had a no-hitter for 8 1/3 innings last season on Aug. 6 against the New York Mets.

Carrasco came within one strike of a no-hitter when Rays left fielder Joey Butler lined a slider on an 0-2 count that just eluded the glove of leaping Cleveland second baseman Jason Kipnis.

Juan Soto broke up Williams’ no-hit bid with a home run to center.

Messick is one of five American League pitchers with at least three wins. He improved to 3-0 this season and is third in the AL with a 1.05 ERA.

“I mean it (stinks), but it is baseball. I’ll have plenty more years to pitch a baseball game, so it might happen again,” he said.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Cleveland Guardians' Parker Messick pitches in the first inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles in Cleveland, Thursday, April 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Guardians center fielder Steven Kwan catches a fly ball for an out on a ball hit by Baltimore Orioles' Taylor Ward in the third inning of a baseball game in Cleveland, Thursday, April 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Guardians pitcher Parker Messick (77) tips his hat to the crowd as he is taken out of the game in the nintgh inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles in Cleveland, Thursday, April 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Guardians pitcher Parker Messick reacts after the third out in the top of the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles in Cleveland, Thursday, April 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Guardians pitcher Parker Messick, right, bumps gloves with catcher Austin Hedges, left, as he is taken out of the game in the ninth inning of a baseball game against tghe Baltimore Orioles in Cleveland, Thursday, April 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)