Hallmark actor Noel Johansen is grieving the death of his late wife, Jen Darbellay, who died as a result of the horrific attack on a street festival in Vancouver, British Columbia, on April 26.
Johansen appeared on crutches at an April 28 vigil for victims of the attack, which happened when an SUV plowed into a crowd of people at an annual Lapu Lapu Day block party celebrating Filipino culture.
Eleven people, whose ages ranged from 5 to 65, were killed and more than two dozen were injured in the rampage, according to NBC News.
“What you see here is just an injury that means nothing to me because what’s inside my heart is broken because my wife passed away behind me at the incident,” Johansen told the crowd in a video published by Canada’s Global News.
Johansen, who has appeared in several Hallmark movies, including “Reunited at Christmas” and “Marrying Mr. Darcy,” said he’s “felt” his wife each time he’s been embraced since the attack.
Darbellay, he said, “never celebrated herself” while she was alive.
“She never thought of herself,” he said. “She thought of herself as small in terms of the reach and I can tell you she was larger than life for any of you who know her.
“So don’t be small in life. Be big. Reach out and reach out as a human being with everything you have and please remember us that went through this,” he added.
Johansen shares a son Ford, 15, and a daughter, Darby, 7, with Darbellay, according to a GoFundMe that was set up for the family after the attack.
A 30-year-old man was arrested and charged with several counts of murder in connection with the attack. Officials say they do not believe the attack was an act of terrorism.
At a Sunday news conference, authorities revealed that the suspect was a Vancouver resident with a history of mental illness who was known to police.
Onlookers who witnessed the gruesome attack described the horror of it to the media.
Yoseb Vardeh, a food truck owner who attended the festival, told the Vancouver Sun that he heard the sound of a vehicle’s engine revving moments before he saw an SUV speeding though a pedestrian-only area.
When Vardeh left his food truck to investigate, he saw “bodies everywhere.”
Kris Pangilinan, a clothing vendor, told The Associated Press that he heard a revving engine that sounded “like an F1 car about to start a race.” That sound was followed by screams and the thud of bodies flying onto the SUV’s hood, he said.
“All I can remember is seeing bodies flying up in the air higher than the food trucks themselves and landing on the ground and people yelling and screaming,” said Pangilinan.
Festival attendees apprehended the suspect and kept him subdued until police arrived and took him into custody, officials say.
