Four children were among the six people killed in a Ottawa townhouse late Wednesday night, victims of what police have described as a “senseless act of violence perpetrated on purely innocent people.”
The crime has shaken the Canadian capital, where officers made the grim discovery just before midnight Wednesday after receiving a flurry of 911 calls. Inside a townhome in the suburb of Barrhaven, they discovered six bodies and a seventh victim who was rushed to a hospital.
Most of the slain victims were identified as a Sri Lakan family, including a mother and her four children, all of whom were younger than 7 years old, CBC reported. The kids’ father survived the ordeal and was hospitalized, but a sixth person, a 40-year-old man who lived with the family, was also killed in the carnage.
The suspect accused of carrying out the attack was identified as 19-year-old Febrio De-Zoysa, also of Sri Lanka, who was studying in Canada. Police said he was an acquaintance who lived with the family, but did not give a motive for the crime.
Ottawa Police Chief Eric Stubbs said he doesn’t believe the slayings were an instance of “intimate partner violence.” Stubbs initially described the tragedy as a mass shooting, but he clarified in a later statement that an “edged weapon” was used in the killings.
“We know there are a lot of questions about why this tragedy occurred,” he said in the statement. “This is the focus of our homicide unit as they diligently investigate this tragic crime.”
Stubbs said De-Zoysa was taken into custody at the scene. He said there is no ongoing threat to the public, but described the investigation as a “complex” one.
The chief added that the crime was the deadliest mass killing in Ottawa in at least three decades.
De-Zoysa made his first court appearance late Thursday afternoon. CBC reported he wore a black tracksuit jacket and spoke little, only stating his name and birthdate before sitting down.
“This is a tragic file… and it will greatly impact the city of Ottawa, let alone the immediate neighborhood in Barrhaven,” Stubbs said. “So obviously we encourage everybody to reach out and get help to help manage themselves through this traumatic event.”
Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe addressed the shooting on Thursday morning, calling it “one of the most shocking incidents of violence in our city’s history.”
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated after police revised their account of the killings, clarifying that it was not a “mass shooting.”