6 Sri Lankans Including 4 Children Killed In Mass Stabbing Incident In Canada’s Ottawa

Ottawa police said Febrio De-Zoysa, a 19-year-old male student from Sri Lanka, had been arrested and charged with six counts of first degree murder and one count of attempted murder.

Six people from Sri Lanka, including a mother and four young children, were stabbed to death in the Canadian capital Ottawa late on Wednesday. The father of the family was also wounded in the attack and is in hospital. Ottawa police chief Eric Stubbs said an “edged weapon” or “knife-like object” was used by the suspect, who was identified as Febrio De-Zoysa.  Police said Febrio De-Zoysa, a 19-year-old male student from Sri Lanka, had been arrested and charged with six counts of first degree murder and one count of attempted murder. De-Zoysa knew the family and had been living in the house, they said.

The dead include Darshani Ekanyake, 35, along with her seven-year-old son, Inuka Wickramasinghe, and her three daughters: Ashwini, 4; Rinyana, 2; and Kelly, two-and-a-half months, who was born in Canada.

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 is in hospital with serious, but non-life-threatening, injuries. “This was a senseless act of violence perpetrated on purely innocent people,” Stubbs said.

Stubbs said they were new to the country. The Sri Lanka high commission confirmed the family are Sri Lankan nationals and it is in touch with their family members in the country’s capital of Colombo.

According to the Canadian Press, another Sri Lankan, Amarakoonmubiayansela Ge Gemini Amarakoon, 40, was also killed in the attack. Stubbs described him as a family friend who was also living in the townhouse and had recently arrived in Canada.

Stubbs said two emergency calls came in at 10:52 p.m. Wednesday describing a man in distress outside in his driveway, screaming for someone to call 911. Stubbs later identified that man as the father.

Shanti Ramesh, who lives across the street from the family, said she heard a commotion late in the evening. From her balcony, she saw a man sitting in the driveway, yelling. When police arrived, they helped carry him away, though it did appear that he was able to walk on his own, Ramesh said.

The killings took place inside a townhome in Barrhaven, a fast-growing suburb about 20 kilometres south of Ottawa’s downtown core.