Ottawa: A 19-year-old student from Sri Lanka is accused of stabbing and killing six people he lived with, including a 2 1/2-month-old baby girl and three other kids from a Sri Lankan family, Ottawa police said.
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. He has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. Mass killings are rare in Canada.
Stubbs said the deceased are Sri Lankan nationals who recently came to Canada. He said they include a 35-year-old mother, a 7-year-old son, a 4-year-old daughter, a 2-year-old daughter and the 2 1/2-month-old 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. “This was a senseless act of violence perpetrated on purely innocent people,” Stubbs said.
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 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. The suspect was arrested quickly after that, and police said there was no continuing threat to public safety.
Don Perera, a neighbor, said he met the family that lived in the home last fall at a Halloween party at the nearby Catholic elementary school. He said the father was from Sri Lanka.