Sri Lankan family slain by 19-year-old Sri Lankan student in Ottawa

A 19-year-old student from Sri Lanka has been charged with stabbing six Sri Lankans living in Ottawa, Canada, killing five of them including a two-and-a-half-month old infant, in Ottawa, Canada.

Ottawa Police have identified the six victims killed in Barrhaven, a suburb of Ottawa, which included a family of five who were newcomers from Sri Lanka. The tragic incident is now being treated as a mass killing by Ottawa Police.

The father, Dhanushka Wickramasinghe sustained serious injuries. His wife, 35-year-old Darshani Dilanthika Ekanayake, was killed along with their sevenyear-old son Inuka, and daughters: four-year-old Ashwini, two-yearold Rinyana, and two- month-old Kelly.

Ottawa Police Service in a statement said that it responded to a home in the 300 block of Berrigan Drive at 10:52 p.m. Wednesday, March 6 after receiving a number of 911 calls.

Investigators said Dhanushka was found outside the house, yelling for help, and was taken to hospital where he is now in serious, but stable condition. Police say the bodies of his wife, four children, and an acquaintance were then found inside the home. The sixth individual, who was found deceased, was 40-year-old Gamini Amarakoon, an acquaintance of the family who recently arrived in Canada and had been living at the home, Police said.

Police arrested and charged the 19-year-old male suspect who was later identified in court as Febrio De-zoysa, a Sri Lankan national who is believed to have been in Canada as a student.

A spokesperson for Algonquin College confirmed to Canadian media that De-zoysa had been a student at the College and that his last semester of attendance had been in winter 2023. DeZoysa, is now facing six first-degree murder charges and one count of attempted murder. He first appeared in court on Thursday afternoon, where 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. De-zoysa is to be produced in court on March 14. Unconfirmed reports said that De-zoysa, who had been living in the basement of the Wickremesinghe family home, had also been an avid gamer.

Canadian news outlet CBC News spoke to one of the family’s neighbours, identified as Hilal Ahmed, who claimed to have been contacted by Dhanushka, with the intention of hiring him as an accountant. Ahmed, who stated that he had not met Dhanushka but corresponded via email and telephone, said that Dhanushka had told him that he arrived in Canada in September 2011 on a student-work visa.

Dhanushka had then moved to Barrhaven, when his wife and children joined from Sri Lanka in July last year, Ahmed added.

Bhante Suneetha, a resident monk and director of the Hilda Jayewardenaramaya Buddhist Monastery, speaking to CBC said that Dhanushka’s family had only been in Canada for about a year. Dhanushka arrived first in 2020 after completing his education and getting a work permit, the monk claimed. Last year said, Dhanushka’s wife who had been pregnant at the time, joined him with their three children. A representative of Uber confirmed to CBC that Dhanushka was employed as a driver for their service. Suneetha meanwhile said Dhanushka had also opened a cleaning business.

Suneetha who had visited Dhanushka in hospital Thursday said that the victim told him that he arrived home from his evening cleaning job Wednesday night to be attacked as he entered the house. He said Dhanushka had part of two fingers cut off, but one has been repaired. He also suffered a slash across his face between his nose and his eye and stab wounds to the chest and back.

Suneetha also said that the family had thrown a birthday party for de Zoysa, when he turned 19, last week.

“This was a senseless act of violence perpetrated on purely innocent people,” said Ottawa Police Chief Eric Stubbs, who said a knife or other edged weapon was used in the attack.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has condemned the mass killing calling it an act of “terrible violence”. “Obviously, our first reactions are all ones of shock and horror at this terrible violence,”trudeau told media.“we’re expecting that the community reaches out to support family and friends, as Canadians always do. And we expect the police of jurisdiction to be doing the work and keeping us all informed of this terrible tragedy.”