One of the worst acts of violence occurred Wednesday evening in Ottawa when a 19-year-old student allegedly ended the lives of six people, including a mother and her four children.
• Read also: Carnage in Ottawa: the youngest of the six victims was 2 months old, the 19-year-old suspect lived with the family
The mass killing is all the more disturbing because it was not perpetrated, as is frequently the case, by a middle-aged man.
The suspect, Febrio De-Zoysa, had recently arrived in Canada, and was reportedly staying with the family he allegedly decimated.
“We know he was close to the family. The hypotheses that we could unfortunately have are that an illness like schizophrenia usually begins at that age, 19-20 years old, in men,” explains in an interview on the show The Balance Sheet psychiatrist Gilles Chamberland.
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“It remains a hypothesis that an illness developed quietly,” he adds, indicating that those around him “did not seem to suspect anything.”
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Mother Darshani Banbaranayake Gama Walwwe Darshani Dilanthika Ekanyake, 35, was found alongside her four children, Inuka, 7, Ashwini, 4, Rinyana, 2, and little Kelly, aged just 2 and a half months .
Photo Guillaume St-Pierre
The sixth victim is Ge Gamini Amarakoon, 40, an acquaintance of the family who was temporarily living with them. They are all nationals of Sri Lanka, authorities confirmed.
The attacks were allegedly carried out with knives.
No history
Dr. Chamberland explains that as a general rule, such a crime is often preceded by warning signs, which does not appear to be the case in this killing.
Febrio De-Zoysa had no criminal history or medical records regarding his mental health in Canada.
“The hypothesis that the murderer was intoxicated cannot be excluded either, but we also do not want to exclude that it was someone who would have been very angry about something, who would have a motive that we do not I don’t know yet, who would have a case to defend or something like that, everything is quite open as a hypothesis,” lists the specialist.
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The psychiatrist explains that under the effect of any psychotropic drug, an individual can feel threatened by people who do not threaten him at all, “even by children”.
“One of the characteristics when it is unfortunately a psychiatric patient or someone who is intoxicated, it is often relatives about whom we will be delirious, so the people who will be attacked are often unfortunately relatives,” warns -he.
The children’s father, who was injured, survived the killing. He even shouted for help. It was his neighbors who called the police a little before 11 p.m. on Wednesday.
According to psychiatrist Gilles Chamberland, it will be particularly difficult for him to come to terms with this tragedy.
“The mourning of a loved one is already difficult, to mourn the loss of your entire family, I’m not sure that it doesn’t leave indelible traces, and to have witnessed that, to have been present , it’s almost insurmountable,” he laments.
“Not developing post-traumatic stress disorder is almost impossible, in addition to facing the reality that you have lost your entire family, it will be extremely difficult for this poor person,” adds- he.
Febrio De-Zoysa is charged with six counts of first-degree murder and one additional count of attempted murder. He remains detained until his next appearance.
Listen to the full interview with psychiatrist Gilles Chamberland in the video at the beginning of the article.