The 19-year-old Sri Lankan national charged in what police have called one of the worst mass killings in Ottawa’s recent history has family in the city who say his behaviour recently changed.
Ottawa police allege Febrio De-Zoysa murdered a mother, her four children including a two-and-a-half-month-old along with a family acquaintance.
De-Zoysa is facing six counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. The father, identified in court documents as Dhanushka Wickramasinghe, suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries.
“I’m still shaking, that family was so nice to him,” his aunt Anusha De-Zoysa told Global News Friday. “They were such a wonderful family.”
She says the accused is her brother’s oldest son and came to Canada two years ago, describing her nephew as “quiet” and a “good student.”
“I’m frozen, I can’t sleep,” she said.
She said that De-Zoysa lived at her house for the first month he came to Canada, about two years ago. After that, he became roommates with Wickramasinghe, whom she says he met at Algonquin College.
She added that Wickramasinghe had been working to move his family from Sri Lanka to Ottawa and invited De-Zoysa to live with him at the Berrigan Drive house once the family came over.
She says De-Zoysa stayed with relatives in Ottawa, before moving in with the Wickramasinghe family, but says he recently cut off his relatives.
“He stopped contacting us. He blocked us. Our phone numbers, social media. Everything was blocked,” she said. “Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think this would happen.” (Global News Canada)
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‘He blocked us’: Man accused in Ottawa homicide changed recently, family says