Ottawa mass killing: Man who died in homicide had children, wife in Sri Lanka

The family were newcomers from Sri Lanka, from which Amarakoon had arrived even more recently

Dhanushka Wickramasinghe, the father of the family, was the sole survivor of the attack

The 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 and 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.