(Ottawa) Residents of the greater Ottawa area and members of the local Sri Lankan community gathered to honor the memory of the six victims of this week’s mass shooting in the Barrhaven neighborhood in the west of the federal capital . Dozens of flowers and toys were left.
The ceremony took place at Palmadeo Park near the residence where two adults and four children were murdered Wednesday.
The Mayor of Ottawa, Mark Sutcliffe, the Chief of the Police Service, Eric Stubbs, and the High Commissioner of Sri Lanka, Harsha Kumara Navaratne, participated in the ceremony which was intended to be sober.
COURTESY PHOTO/THE CANADIAN PRESS
Dhanushka Wickramasinghe and Darshani Ekanyake posing with their son Inuka Wickramasinghe and their three daughters Ashwini, Rinyana and Kelly
Participants left flowers, toys and candles under a gazebo. Six balloons, each marked with the name of one of the victims, were released into the air.
Darshani Ekanyake, 35, was killed on Wednesday evening along with her seven-year-old son, Inuka Wickramasinghe, and three daughters: Ashwini, four; Rinyana, two years old; and Kelly, two and a half months old, who was born in Canada. Also killed was Amarakoonmubiayansela Ge Gemini Amarakoon, 40, who police described as a family friend.
The father, identified in court documents as Dhanushka Wickramasinghe, suffered serious but non-life threatening injuries.
Febrio De-Zoysa, a foreign exchange student who resided with the family, was charged with six counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.