1 of 6 Barrhaven homicide victims had children, wife in Sri Lanka
CBC
A man who died alongside five members of a family in a mass killing in Ottawa's Barrhaven neighbourhood on Wednesday is said to have been supporting his own family in Sri Lanka.
Gamini Amarakoon, an acquaintance of the Wickramasinghe family, was living with them when he, along with the mother of the family her four children, were killed.
Their bodies were found by police inside a townhouse the family was renting on Berrigan Drive near Palmadeo Drive in the capital's southern suburbs, after the police received 911 calls to the home late on Wednesday night.
Dhanushka Wickramasinghe, the father of the family, was the sole survivor of the attack.
The family were newcomers from Sri Lanka, from which Amarakoon had arrived even more recently, according to Anzul Jhan, the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner.
Jhan said Amarakoon was the only member of his family in Canada, on a work permit, and that he was supporting his wife, two children, mother and a sister who are still living in Sri Lanka.
"So that is very tragic news for them," Jhan told CBC News.
Naradha Kodituwakku, a community leader at the Hilda Jayewardenaramaya Buddhist Monastery, where the Wickramasinghe family were members, said he believed Amarakoon had moved to Canada two months ago.
"Obviously there is a family that is torn there too," he said.
He said the temple and High Commission are both working to support Amarakoon's family in Sri Lanka.
The family's father, Dhanushka Wickramasing, moved to Canada in 2020 after completing his education and getting a work permit, according to Bhante Suneetha, a resident monk and director of the monastery.
Suneetha said the mother, 35-year-old Darshani Dilanthika Ekanayake, and three of the children, moved to Canada last year while she was pregnant with her fourth child.
She and the children — daughters Kelly, who was two months old; Ranaya, 3; and Ashwini, 4, and son Inuka, 7 — were all killed on Wednesday.
Suneetha said the family came to his temple for events and helped out.
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