A Sri Lankan family was found dead in Ottawa, Canada, with a 19-year-old Sri Lankan student arrested for the murders.
What Happened: The Ottawa Police Service announced the death of six individuals from Sri Lanka, including a mother and four young children, on Wednesday. The incident, a rare case of mass murder in Canada, has left the country in shock, Reuters reported.
The father of the family was also injured in the attack and is currently hospitalized. The suspect, Febrio De-Zoysa, a 19-year-old male student from Sri Lanka, has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. De-Zoysa was known to the family and had been residing in their home.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed horror over what he described as a “terrible tragedy.” Additionally, the father of the family was injured in the attack and is currently hospitalized.
The victims include a 35-year-old woman, her children aged 7, 4, 2, and 2 months, and a 40-year-old man who was an acquaintance of the family. Eric Stubbs, the Ottawa police chief, described the incident as a “senseless act of violence perpetrated on purely innocent people.”
Why It Matters: The incident has sent shockwaves through Canada, a country where mass murders are rare. This tragedy comes at a time when the issue of immigration is a hot topic in the U.S. President Joe Biden has been criticized for his approach to immigration, with some accusing him of allowing a significant influx of undocumented immigrants into the U.S. to shift the country’s political landscape toward a single-party system.
Mass shootings have also been a significant concern in the U.S., with tech companies like Google taking steps to protect their users from such incidents.
In February, a Super Bowl victory parade for the Kansas City Chiefs turned tragic as gunfire erupted, resulting in one death and 21 injuries.
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