The attack unfolded across several blocks over a matter of minutes. The driver, Wen Qingyun, made six separate collisions — running over pedestrians at the Tianhe and Tiyu East intersection, striking another person on Tianhe South Road, returning to the first site to drive into more people, hitting two delivery drivers and a cyclist near the Shipaiqiao Bus Station, then veering into a further intersection before finally ramming a traffic officer on a motorcycle, who survived. The car stopped only when it crashed into a guard rail separating motor lanes from the bike lane.

The victims were ordinary people navigating an ordinary evening — workers heading home, people running errands, a child. The wounded were transported to hospitals across the city for treatment. Those who died could not be saved. The youngest among them was six years old.

Bystanders subdued Wen at the scene before police arrived. Officers announced his arrest by 19:36 that same night. In the days that followed, residents came to a station near the site to leave flowers.

The response also revealed tensions. Guangzhou police initially described the event as a traffic accident, drawing swift and widespread criticism. People on Weibo and other Chinese social media platforms pushed back; the incident became a top trending topic. Within twenty-four hours, posts and comments related to the attack were removed from those platforms, prompting accusations of censorship. The official framing — accident rather than deliberate attack — struck many as an attempt to minimize what had happened to real people in a real public space.

Wen Qingyun was 22 years old at the time of the attack. He had no prior criminal record. After a junior college education, he had returned to Dongguan to help run a stationery shop with his family. According to his confession and court testimony, an argument with his parents that morning over a minor expense preceded his decision to take his father's car.

He was charged with endangering public safety by dangerous means. At trial he admitted the attack and expressed what a victim's family member described as remorse — though Wen did not explain what he was remorseful for, and he did not apologize directly to those who had lost someone. On April 18, 2023, a court sentenced him to death. His appeal was dismissed on June 28, 2023, with the Guangdong High People's Court describing his conduct as having "extremely serious consequences" and "great social harm." Wen Qingyun was executed on April 19, 2024.

The intersection of Tianhe Road and Tiyu East Road returned to its ordinary rhythms. Commuters cross it again every day. The shopping plazas continue to draw crowds. But among those who were there, or who lost someone, or who watched the flowers appear at a nearby station in the days after — the evening of January 11 remains. No memorial marks the specific site, but the grief of those directly affected does not require one.

Events like this one are difficult to hold clearly. They resist both the impulse to explain them away and the impulse to extract large meaning from them. What can be said with certainty is that six people went out into the city that evening and did not come home. The youngest was six years old. They deserve to be remembered as the people they were, not as statistics in a category.