Colin
OTTAWA — Blood spattered the sidewalk Thursday outside a suburban Ottawa home where police recovered the bodies of a mother, her four young children and a family friend from the aftermath of a vicious and unexplained attack.
Febrio De-Zoysa, a 19-year-old international student who had been living with the family, was to appear in court Thursday. Police say he faces six charges of first-degree murder.
“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.
De-Zoysa, a Sri Lankan national, was in Canada as a student, police said. He also faces one count of attempted murder in connection with the family’s father, who survived the rampage.
The dead include Darshani Ekanyake, 35, along with her seven-year-old son, Inuka Wickramasinghe, and her three daughters: Ashwini, 4; two-year-old Rinyana; and Kelly, a two-and-a-half-month-old baby.
Amarakoonmubiayansela Ge Gemini Amarakoon, 40, was also killed in the attack. He was also living with the family and had recently arrived from Sri Lanka, Stubbs said.
The chief 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 family’s husband and father, who is identified in court documents as Dhanushka Wickramasinghe.
He was injured and remains in hospital in serious condition, but his injuries are not life-threatening, authorities say.
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. The brick rowhouse sits on a relatively busy through street, which Thursday morning was crawling with police and onlookers, as well as parents and kids heading to one of the two elementary schools nearby.
A trail of blood droplets was still visible on the sidewalk in front of the row of brick townhomes Thursday afternoon. The door of the townhome immediately beside the victims’ residence was also smeared with blood.
A vigil has been set up in a nearby park but some residents, feeling the grief of the event, left bouquets of tulips on the front lawn of the townhouse.
Stubbs said the first officers on the scene identified and arrested the suspect very quickly, before entering the home to find the bodies of all six victims.
He said police are limited in the details they can provide to protect the integrity of the investigation.
“We know there are a lot of questions about why this tragedy occurred. This is the focus of our homicide unit as they diligently investigate this tragic crime.”
