Jendhel May Sico and her partner Blaine Redlac. Sico was killed in Vancouver’s Lapu Lapu day tragedy. Photo by Submitted
A weekend outing for two Metro Vancouver couples and their family members ended in tragedy at the Lapu Lapu Day festival in Vancouver on Saturday.
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Jendhel May Sico was with her partner, Blaine Redlac, Blaine’s best friend, Jordan Mazzotti, and Mazzotti’s fiancée, Glitza Samper, at the festival celebrating Filipino culture near Fraser Street and East 41st Avenue when, just after 8 p.m., a black SUV drove into the crowd, killing 11 and injuring dozens.
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“She brought light to my brother’s life. She brought light to everyone’s life,” said Alicia Gillard of Sico, who had been with Redlac since they were teenagers growing up in Surrey,
Redlac was planning to propose, but is now lying injured in a hospital bed, devastated about Sico’s death. “He loved her to the moon and back. We got robbed of celebrating them as being married.”
Sico, who was in her mid-20s, was a good aunt to her three kids, Gillard said. She worked at a lumber distributor company in Metro Vancouver. Sico and Redlac lived in Port Coquitlam but were planning to move back to Surrey.
Jendhel May Sico and her partner Blaine Redlac Photo by Submitted
On Saturday, at the festival, it was Mazzotti who first knew something was wrong. He saw or heard the SUV as it ripped down the street and moved just in time to avoid a fatal hit.
“He grabbed Blaine, he could reach him, he saved him but he couldn’t save his own fiancée,” Gillard said of Samper, through tears. The couple had just recently got engaged.
“These were the kind of women you want to be in your family,” she said. “They were just the nicest people, the sweetest, the most caring. Our world is less beautiful today because the two of them aren’t in it.”
Samper’s parents, Glitza Maria Caicedo and Daniel Samper, were also killed in the attack, Samper’s brother Alejandro confirmed to The Canadian Press.
Alejandro Samper, left to right, his sister Glitza Daniela Samper, his mother Glitza Maria Caicedo and his father Daniel Samper are shown in this undated handout photo. Photo by HO /The Canadian Press
The damage to the extended Sico family was also immense. Sico’s cousin AJ Sico remains in hospital fighting for his life.
An online fundraiser said AJ has “devastating injuries” including broken legs, a lacerated liver, internal bleeding near a major artery, and brain swelling and is currently on dialysis.
