Six Sri Lankan nationals were stabbed to death allegedly by a 19-year-old student from Sri Lanka in Canada’s Ottawa, the police said on Thursday (March 7). The deceased also included a two-and-a-half-month baby girl and three other kids from a Sri Lankan family. Ottawa police chief Eric Stubbs said that an “edged weapon” or “knife-like object” was used by the suspect, who was identified as Febrio De-Zoysa. He was charged with six counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.
Mass killings are not common in Canada.
Stubbs said that the deceased Sri Lankan nationals had recently come to Canada, among whom were a 35-year-old mother, a 7-year-old son, a 4-year-old daughter, a 2-year-old daughter and the two-and-a-half-month baby girl as well as a 40-year-old acquaintance of the family.
The police chief said when the first officers arrived at the home the family's father was outside and screaming for someone to call 911. Police received two emergency calls at 10:52 p.m. Wednesday. The father was admitted to the hospital with serious, but non-life-threatening, injuries.
“This was a senseless act of violence perpetrated on purely innocent people,” Stubbs said.
Sri Lanka’s high commission reacts
Sri Lanka's high commission said that it is in touch with relatives in the country's capital, Colombo.
De-Zoysa made a brief appearance in court on Thursday and mumbled his assent as the justice of the peace ordered him not to speak to the father who survived the attack or to four other witnesses who provided statements to the police.
His case was adjourned until March 13 to give him time to find a lawyer.
Police were called to the home in the Barrhaven area just before 11 p.m. Wednesday night.
The suspect was arrested quickly after that, and police said there was no continuing threat to public safety.
PM Trudeau reacts
“Our first reactions are all ones of shock and horror at this terrible violence,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe called the news distressing for all the city's residents.
“It's hard to believe. It's devastating and heartbreaking,” he said.
Police have identified the victims as Darshani Banbaranayake Gama Walwwe Darshani Dilanthika Ekanyake, the 35-year-old mother; Inuka Wickramasinghe, a 7-year-old boy; Ashwini Wickramasinghe, a 4-year-old daughter, Rinyana Wickramasinghe, a 2-year-old daughter and Kelly Wickramasinghe, a 2 1/2-month-old baby girl.
A sixth victim, Amarakoonmubiayansela Ge Gamini Amarakoon, 40, was also found deceased.
(With AP inputs)
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