UPDATE | Ottawa police initially referred to what occurred as a mass capturing. The pressure has since corrected the report, saying there was no capturing on Berrigan Drive. This is a growing story, and it will proceed to be up to date.
Six folks together with a mom, her 4 young kids and a household acquaintance have been killed inside a townhouse within the south Ottawa suburb of Barrhaven late Wednesday night time.
During a media briefing Thursday afternoon, Ottawa police Chief Eric Stubbs mentioned there have been initially two calls to 911 round 10:52 p.m. Wednesday.
He mentioned first responders arrived inside minutes to the home on Berrigan Drive close to Palmadeo Drive, a residential space shut to 2 faculties.
Police have recognized 5 of the victims as a household of newcomers to Canada from Sri Lanka. They are:
- 35-year-old Darshani Banbaranayake Gama Walwwe Darshani Dilanthika Ekanayake.
- Seven-year-old Inuka Wickramasinghe.
- Four-year-old daughter Ashwini Wickramasinghe.
- Two-year-old daughter Rinyana Wickramasinghe.
- Two-month-old daughter Kelly Wickramasinghe.
Police mentioned Ekanayake’s husband was injured and is presently in hospital in steady situation. He’s since been recognized as Dhanushka Wickramasinghe.
Another man, 40-year-old Amarakoonmubiayansela Ge Gamini Amarakoon, was additionally killed.
Febrio De-Zoysa, 19, is charged with six counts of first-degree homicide and one rely of tried homicide. Police mentioned he’s a Sri Lankan nationwide who’s believed to be in Canada as a scholar.
On Thursday night, Algonquin College president Claude Brulé launched a press release confirming De-Zoysa was a scholar on the school and that “it seems his final semester of attendance was Winter 2023.”
He made his first courtroom look late Thursday afternoon. De-Zoysa spoke little, stating his title and birthdate earlier than sitting down.
He was ordered to not contact 5 folks, one in every of whom is Dhanushka Wickramasinghe.
De-Zoysa’s subsequent courtroom look is scheduled for March 14.
Police mentioned De-Zoysa can be an acquaintance of the household and was dwelling within the home on the time of the killings. He was arrested on the scene about 15 kilometres south of Ottawa’s downtown core.
Stubbs mentioned the household’s youngest daughter was born in Canada, and advised the members of the family had arrived at totally different occasions.
He mentioned Ottawa police had by no means handled both the suspect or the household, and had by no means been referred to as to that handle earlier than Wednesday night time.
Ottawa police Chief Eric Stubbs says the youngest of the six folks killed in Barrhaven was lower than three months old.
‘Unimaginable loss’
During Thursday’s update, Stubbs referred to as the killings “a mindless act of violence perpetrated on purely harmless folks.”
He provided his condolences to the victims’ family members “for this unimaginable loss.”
“This [homicide] will undoubtedly weigh on the hearts of everybody for a really very long time,” he mentioned.
A memorial has been arrange at close by Palmadeo Park as police proceed to ask folks to keep away from the scene of the crime.
Ottawa police mentioned there isn’t any ongoing danger to public security.
In a letter to oldsters despatched out Thursday afternoon, the Ottawa Catholic School Board (OCSB) confirmed the 2 eldest kids have been college students in Grade 2 and junior kindergarten at Monsignor Paul Baxter School.
“Our deepest sympathies and sincerest condolences go to the households and family members of the victims throughout this extremely difficult time. We can’t think about the ache and sorrow they should be experiencing,” wrote the varsity’s principal Vincenza Nicoletti.
The faculty mentioned grief counselling and disaster assist could be available for each college students and employees, however mentioned they weren’t offering rather more data to college students “given the sensitivity surrounding the occasion.”
Shanti Ramesh, who lives throughout the road from the scene, instructed CBC she was watching TV late Wednesday night time when she noticed the flashing lights of emergency automobiles.
When she went outdoors, she noticed a person screaming.
“I noticed a man was sitting on the driveway and yelling, so the police got here after which they took him away,” she mentioned.
Police later recognized the person as the daddy of the household.
Ramesh mentioned she did not notice till the next morning {that a} “main tragedy” had occurred, and mentioned she’s been feeling numb ever since.
“It’s horrible,” she instructed CBC.
Police confirmed Wednesday’s homicides are thought-about the worst mass killing within the metropolis’s recent historical past.
‘Knife-like’ edged weapon used
Stubbs instructed reporters on Thursday afternoon {that a} edged “knife-like” edged weapon was used within the homicides.
In an earlier interview on CBC News Network, he had initially referred to as the incident a “mass capturing,” but it surely was not.
While police didn’t speculate on a motive for the killings, Stubbs earlier instructed CBC investigators don’t imagine it to be a case of intimate accomplice violence.
“This is a tragic file … and it’ll tremendously affect the town of Ottawa, not to mention the instant neighbourhood in Barrhaven. So clearly we encourage all people to succeed in out and get assist to assist handle themselves by way of this traumatic occasion,” he mentioned.
‘I can not imagine it’
After listening to the information early Thursday, Barrhaven resident David Brose got here to the scene.
“I’m clearly in shock … it is powerful,” he mentioned, his voice breaking. “I’m simply in awe. I can not imagine it.”
WATCH | A neighbour reacts:
David Brose mentioned he heard on the radio that six folks have been killed and one other was injured in a single day. He got here to see the scene himself Thursday morning.
Asked in regards to the incident Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his disappointment.
“Obviously our first reactions are all one in every of shock and horror at this horrible violence,” he mentioned. “We predict that the group reaches out to assist household and associates, as Canadians at all times do.”
On social media, Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe referred to as it “one of the crucial surprising incidents of violence in our metropolis’s historical past.”
In a later interview on CBC News Network, he mentioned folks locally have been “surprised” by the information.
“In explicit I do know individuals are simply devastated to listen to that kids are concerned,” Sutcliffe mentioned. “I feel that is what’s most heartbreaking to me and to my household and to all Ottawa residents, is to listen to of violence on this scale and to know that kids have been victims … it is simply actually incomprehensible and unimaginable and completely devastating.”
WATCH | Mayor Mark Sutcliffe on ‘abhorrent’ violence:
Mayor Mark Sutcliffe says folks in Ottawa have been devastated to study of the killings of 4 kids and two adults in Barrhaven.
Nepean MPP Lisa MacLeod, whose using consists of this a part of Barrhaven, mentioned the group woke as much as shock and grief.
“There aren’t any phrases for the heartbreak me and my neighbours really feel for the surviving household, associates [and] playmates of the deceased,” she mentioned.
My group has woken as much as shock, grief and tragedy immediately as 6 folks, together with 4 kids, have been murdered. There aren’t any phrases for the heartbreak me and my neighbours really feel for the surviving household, associates & playmates of the deceased. I’ve spoken already this morning…
—@MacLeodLisa
Coun. Wilson Lo, who represents the world, mentioned on social media that he was “saddened to study of the tragic lack of six Barrhaven neighbours,” and that his ideas are with their family members and folks shut by.
