Tuesday, February 3, 2026
ADVT 
National

At Least 2 Canadians In Hospital After Driver Hits Pedestrians In Las Vegas

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 21 Dec, 2015 11:19 AM
    A hospital spokeswoman says two Canadians are among five people in either critical or serious condition after a woman intentionally drove her car into pedestrians on a sidewalk outside a Las Vegas casino.
     
    Danita Cohen of the University Medical Centre of Southern Nevada tells The Canadian Press that three of the five are in critical condition and two are in serious condition.
     
    She could not elaborate on the health of the two Canadians.
     
    Las Vegas police say one person was killed and 26 other people were sent to hospital after the Sunday evening incident.
     
    They say several Canadians were injured.
     
    Police do not believe it was an act of terrorism.
     
    Cohen says four men and a woman are also in fair condition at another facility, the Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center.
     
    The driver, who is in her 20s, "went up and off these streets, two or possibly three times," Lt. Dan McGrath said, striking people on a busy sidewalk outside the Paris and Planet Hollywood casino-hotels.
     
    A three-year-old child was in the vehicle with her but was not hurt, said Capt. Brett Zimmerman.
     
    Police did not give a possible motive but said they would release more information at a 1 p.m. news conference.
     
    At least two of the injured Canadians were from Montreal, Cohen said.
     
    News reports indicated one of the injured was 21-year-old Anthony Hamel, from Delson, near Montreal.
     
     
    Reports said he was released from hospital but that his relatives had been more seriously injured.
     
    Jessica Valenzuela, 32, of Buckeye, Arizona, died in the crash, according to Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg. The suburban Phoenix woman was visiting Las Vegas with her husband, the coroner said.
     
    Justin Cochrane, a visitor from Santa Barbara, Calif., said he was having dinner at a sidewalk restaurant outside the Paris hotel when he saw the car smashing into pedestrians.
     
    "It was just massacring people," he said, adding that the car appeared to be going 50 and 65 km/h.
     
    Cochrane said he couldn't understand why the car went into the crowd a second time.
     
    "Why would it slow to go around and then accelerate again?" he said. "I thought, 'It's a crazy person.'"
     
    Cochrane said he saw children and adults injured on the ground as the car drove away.
     
    The pedestrians were not in the road and were not at fault, police said.
     
    Joel Ortega, 31, of Redlands, Calif., said he and his wife, Carla, were visiting for the weekend and found themselves blocked from walking on the sidewalk toward the Paris hotel. They could see police investigating about a block away from the crash.
     
    "At first, I thought it was a movie shoot," he said. "I thought maybe we'd see someone famous."
     
    But then they learned that it was a crash scene. Ortega said it made them remember how their Redlands neighbourhood was disrupted after the Dec. 2 mass shooting in nearby San Bernardino, Calif.
     
    The crash comes months after another woman was accused of driving into a crowd during Oklahoma State's homecoming parade. Four people were killed and more than 40 were hurt Oct. 24.
     
     
    In September 2005, three tourists were killed and nearly a dozen injured when a car barrelled through the crowd on the Las Vegas Strip and crashed into a cement barrier in front of Bally's hotel-casino.

    MORE National ARTICLES

    New Daily Aeromexico Flights To Vancouver Seen As Boon For Tourism And Business

    New Daily Aeromexico Flights To Vancouver Seen As Boon For Tourism And Business
    Richmond said the non-stop service "opens up" the Latin American market with the airline's "great onward network connections."

    New Daily Aeromexico Flights To Vancouver Seen As Boon For Tourism And Business

    B.C. Judge Sides With Trinity Western University Saying Law Society Erred

     An evangelical Christian university under fire across the country for forbidding sexual intimacy outside of heterosexual marriage has secured a decisive legal victory in its effort to open a law school in British Columbia.

    B.C. Judge Sides With Trinity Western University Saying Law Society Erred

    Wife Of Saudi Blogger Raif Badawi Says He Is On Hunger Strike In Prison

    Wife Of Saudi Blogger Raif Badawi Says He Is On Hunger Strike In Prison
    Ensaf Haidar tells Amnesty International her husband began it on Tuesday to protest the move.

    Wife Of Saudi Blogger Raif Badawi Says He Is On Hunger Strike In Prison

    Canada's Environment Minister Catherine McKenna Worried About Rights Of Indigenous Peoples

    Canada's Environment Minister Catherine McKenna Worried About Rights Of Indigenous Peoples
    PARIS — Federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has expressed deep concerns about opposition at the international climate conference to what she called a "critically important" issue — the rights of Aboriginal Peoples.

    Canada's Environment Minister Catherine McKenna Worried About Rights Of Indigenous Peoples

    Chilliwack Woman Driving In Wrong Direction Dies After Head-On Collision On Highway 1

    Chilliwack Woman Driving In Wrong Direction Dies After Head-On Collision On Highway 1
    RCMP say the truck was travelling westbound in an eastbound lane when it collided head-on with a semi-truck just before midnight on Tuesday.

    Chilliwack Woman Driving In Wrong Direction Dies After Head-On Collision On Highway 1

    Sea Otter That Recovered From Gunshot Wounds Dies At Vancouver Aquarium

    Sea Otter That Recovered From Gunshot Wounds Dies At Vancouver Aquarium
    Walter, also affectionately known as Wally, was rescued from a Tofino, B.C., shoreline on Oct. 19, 2013, after locals reported a sea otter that appeared lethargic.

    Sea Otter That Recovered From Gunshot Wounds Dies At Vancouver Aquarium