Man accused in Vancouver attack sought money for brother's funeral, struggling mother in online fundraisers

Toronto Star

29-04-2025

The man in the video is surrounded by people, including a security guard, as onlookers shout at him.
He looks toward the camera and says, simply: 'I'm sorry.'
The video, posted to social media, appears to capture the moment after bystanders had detained a man now accused of barrelling through revellers at a popular Filipino festival in Vancouver, killing 11, including a five-year-old girl and her parents.
Murder charges have been filed against a suspect in a car ramming attack that killed 11 people between the ages of 5 and 65 at a Filipino heritage festival in Vancouver. (AP Video shot by Claire Rush / April 28, 2025)
What little is known about Kai-Ji Adam Lo includes a series of personal tragedies in the months leading up to Saturday night's attack at the Lapu-Lapu Day festival.
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Police have said the 30-year-old had no criminal record, but did have a 'significant history of interactions with police related to mental health.'
Those interactions included contact with police the day before the attack, Vancouver police Sgt. Steve Addison told reporters Monday. He did not provide details of the encounter.
Addison did say that police interactions with Lo 'did not rise to the level where mental health intervention was required.'
British Columbia
'Shocked and heartbroken': Five-year-old girl, her parents and Vancouver teacher among 11 killed in Filipino street festival tragedy
Eleven people, ranging from age five to 65, were killed and more than 30 people were hurt in
A Facebook account appearing to belong to Lo said he was from Taiwan. It also listed University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business under education. A spokesperson for UBC, Matthew Ramsey, confirmed Monday that Lo graduated with an arts degree in 2019.
Accused's brother slain last year
In January 2024, Lo's older brother, Alexander Lo, was found dead in a house a short drive from the family home in East Vancouver.
A 39-year-old man was charged by Vancouver police with second-degree murder in the elder Lo brother's death. The man, Dwight William Kematch, has pleaded not guilty and faces trial.
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In a GoFundMe page that was taken down in the wake of the festival attack, Lo asked for help funding his brother's funeral expenses. In it, he described the anguish endured by his mother.
'The realization that he'll never return home pains both me and my financially strained mother, unable to afford proper funeral expenses,' the post said.
People place candles on 41st and Fraser in Vancouver on Sunday, a day after a car drove into a crowd during the Lapu-Lapu Festival.
DON MACKINNON AFP via Getty Images
On Facebook last year, Lo posted on his brother's page: 'Still missing you brother.'
The fundraiser also said his mother took out 'significant loans' to build her older son a 'modest tiny home' that caused 'painful encounters' with unnamed builders.
A civil suit in Lo and his mother's name filed in B.C.'s provincial court names a company over 'poor workmanship' and other faults in constructing a laneway home at their property years earlier.
Lo posted second fundraiser
In August, Lo posted a new fundraiser, this time to aid his mother, who he said had tried to take her own life.
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'This is due to several things: the sudden passing of my brother and that she has immense bills to pay and has struggled for a long time due to high interest rates,' and worry over losing her home, that post said. Property records show the home was purchased in a cash sale in 2006 for $653,999. It remains listed in Lo's mother's name.
It was her son who found his mother unconscious and called for an ambulance, he wrote.
Vancouver tragedy: What we know about the victims and the accused in the Filipino festival vehicle ramming
'I cannot stand to see her suffer anymore, and there's nothing I can do to help her.'
That was August 2024.
Public records show Lo's mother co-signed a car loan with her son in 2017 for a 2018 Audi Q7.
At the festival site, a black Audi SUV was visible on scene after the attack.
Police said Monday that in the wake of the attack they have searched Lo's residence, a two-storey home on a suburban street less than three kilometres from the festival site.
Lo stands charged with eight counts of second-degree murder. Police said Monday they are anticipating that further charges will be laid.