Four children and two adults found dead in residence in Canada, police say
A 19-year-old Sri Lankan student has been arrested after police found a mother and her four young children, along with a family acquaintance, dead in an Ottawa, Canada, residence Wednesday night.
The victims — four children and two adults — were found at an address on Berrigan Drive in the nation’s capital just before 11 p.m., Ottawa police said.
Police responded to two 911 calls at 10:52 p.m. Wednesday night regarding a man yelling and asking people to call 911 in the suburb of Barrhaven.
Officers responded and arrested suspect Febrio De-Zoysa, without incident, Ottawa Police Chief Eric Stubbs said in a news conference Thursday.
When officers entered the home they discovered the six deceased victims, described as a family and an acquaintance, all originally from Sri Lanka who were "newcomers to Canada."
They were identified as Darshani Banbaranayake Gama Walwwe Darshani Dilanthika Ekanyake, 35, and her four children: 7-year-old boy Inuka Wickramasinghe, 4-year-old girl Ashwini Wickramasinghe, 2-year-old girl Rinyana Wickramasinghe, and 2-month-old Kelly Wickramasinghe.
The husband of the wife and father of the children was the man who asked for people to call 911, Stubbs said. He was injured and is in the hospital in serious but stable condition.
The sixth victim was Amarakoonmubiayansela Ge Gamini Amarakoon, 40. Chief Stubbs said he was an acquaintance of the family who recently arrived in Canada and was living in the same home as the family.
It's not clear what motivated the Wednesday night horror that police described as a "mass killing" done with a sharp, edged weapon.
De-Zoysa, a Sri Lankan national who police believe is a student in Canada, has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.
Stubbs said he is the only suspect in the case and there's no ongoing threat to public safety.
De-Zoysa was living in the same home as the family, Stubbs said. Police are still looking into the dynamics of the residents living in that home and how they came to know each other.
Stubbs on Thursday called the tragedy "a senseless act of violence perpetrated on purely innocent people," noting this is the largest murder in recent memory in Ottawa.
A vigil has been set up in memory of the victims.
Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said on X he was “devastated” to learn about the multiple homicide, calling it, “one of the most shocking incidents of violence in our city’s history.”
“Ginny and I are thinking of the family members and neighbors of the victims. Thank you to our emergency responders who are investigating and supporting those who are affected by this terrible event,” he said.
Anyone with information about the deaths is asked to contact the Ottawa Police Service Homicide Unit at 613-236-1222, ext. 5493.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
