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A 20-year-old man has pleaded guilty to murdering four children, their mother and a close family friend in a mass stabbing in Ottawa last year. Febrio De Zoysa has also pleaded guilty to one count of attempted murder for his attack on the father of the family, Dhanushka Wickramasinghe, who was seriously injured. At the time of the stabbings on March 6, 2024, De Zoysa was a 19-year-old international student living with the Wickramasinghes in their basement in Ottawa's Barrhaven suburb. He was arrested at the scene without incident and charged with six counts of first-degree murder the following day. De Zoysa stood with his lawyer Ewan Lyttle in Superior Court in Ottawa Thursday morning and pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder of the following victims: Ranaya Wickramasinghe, the family's three-year-old daughter.Ashwini Wickramasinghe, their four-year-old daughter.Inuka Wickramasinghe, their seven-year-old son.Gamini Amarakoon, 40, a close family friend and one of the family's two tenants. The sentences for those murders are automatic: life in prison with no ability to apply for parole for 25 years. For the remaining two victims — mother Darshani Ekanayake, 35, and her baby Kelly Wickramasinghe, just two months old — De Zoysa pleaded down to the lesser offence of second-degree murder. Pleading down is common in plea bargains. A conviction of second-degree murder also earns a life sentence, but Justice Kevin Phillips will decide when De Zoysa is eligible for parole, with input from the Crown and defence. The murders — described by Ottawa's mayor as one of the most shocking acts of violence the capital has ever seen — generated headlines across Canada and also gripped Sri Lankan media. With the exception of the baby, the Wickramasinghes were newcomers to Canada from Sri Lanka. So was Amarakoon, who was working to support his family back home. De Zoysa is a Sri Lankan national. Facts heard in court In an interview with a homicide investigator after his arrest, De Zoysa said the Wickramasinghe family had "been nothing but good to me," but he decided to "bash out" and kill them because he had run out of money, he didn't want to return to Sri Lanka when his international student visa expired, and he "was too goddamn weak" to take his own life. "I'm tired of all these rules and people and it's just stupid, like the entire world," De Zoysa told Ottawa police homicide Sgt. Chris O'Brien. On March 1, five days before the slayings, he made the decision to do it, Crown attorney Dallas Mack told court Thursday. Afterward, his plan was to keep living in the house for a few days until he was arrested. This family photo was taken that same day, during a celebration for Ranaya Wickramasinghe's third birthday. On Jan. 31, 2024, De Zoysa had ordered a 38-centimetre hunting knife online that he had planned to use to kill himself, he told O'Brien. Around the same time he had stopped attending classes and completing assignments, was spending a lot of time playing video games and a lot of money on takeout orders, the Crown said. De Zoysa thought his failing grades would result in the cancellation of his student visa, ending the flow of financial support he was sending to his family in Sri Lanka. Began in the basement On March 6, 2024, Dhanushka Wickramasinghe was working two jobs: at his cleaning business, starting at 3:30 a.m., and driving for Uber in chunks throughout the rest of the day. He took breaks to drop his two eldest children off at school and to eat breakfast with his wife and their two youngest children. Later, he took another break to pick his kids up from school and they stopped for a box of doughnuts on the way home. Wickramasinghe dropped them off at the house and headed back to work. Later that afternoon, De Zoysa invited the family's other tenantinto his basement bedroom to watch a movie. In the bedroom he stabbed Amarakoon multiple times, killing him within seconds or at most within "a small number of minutes," the Crown told court, recapping the findings of a forensic pathologist. Seven-year-old Inuka heard Amarakoon's screams from upstairs and told his mother, who was with the baby. Darshani Ekanayake then called her husband, who was still out working. After speaking to his wife, Dhanushka Wickramasinghe called De Zoysa to ask what was going on. In his interview with O'Brien, De Zoysa said he lied to Wickramasinghe that the screams had come from the movie he'd been watching in the basement with Amarakoon. After he managed to convince the couple everything was fine, De Zoysa headed upstairs. On the main level and upper floor of the house, he stabbed all four children and Ekanayake to death. He outlined for police, in detail too graphic to publish here, where and how it happened, and what he did immediately afterward. A forensic pathologist found that Ekanayake and the children each died within seconds of being attacked. De Zoysa told O'Brien that around 5:20 p.m., he called Dhanushka Wickramasinghe to ask when he would be home, and he spent the intervening hours waiting for him. "I was just watching TikToks, trying to waste time.... Trying to calm myself down," De Zoysa said. Wickramasinghe arrived home just before 11 p.m., after finishing work and going to the gym, the Crown told court. The lights inside the house were off and he assumed everyone was sleeping. For about 10 minutes he sat in his car in the garage, using social media to catch up with friends and family. Then he got out and entered his home through a door in the garage. A chase and confession As soon as he walked in he saw De Zoysa, who was standing with the hunting knife hidden behind his back. Wickramasinghe greeted him and De Zoysa immediately started attacking him, the Crown said. Wickramasinghe eventually managed to overpower De Zoysa and wrench the knife from his hands, the Crown said. Wickramasinghe then ran to a neighbour's house for help as De Zoysa chased after him with a chef's knife from the kitchen. The neighbours heard Wickramasinghe screaming that someone had killed his children. They called 911, and Wickramasinghe called 911 as well. When they arrived, police found De Zoysa sitting on the front steps. "I was going to be deported, I had no choice. I killed them all," De Zoysa told the arresting officer. After he was read his rights, he repeated that he had killed them. First responders found all the victims inside. Wickramasinghe "was only concerned for his family" despite his own serious wounds, the Crown said. "He tried to re-enter the home to get to his wife and children. He asked repeatedly for any information about them," but police kept him outside to be treated before he was eventually taken to hospital. He remained in hospital for days, undergoing multiple surgeries. Victim impact statements There were five victim impact statements Thursday: three from Amarakoon’s family and two from Wickramasinghe’s. Amarakoon’s widow Dishani Asangika Fernando appeared in court via video from Sri Lanka, saying Amarakoon was a selfless provider for their family who “gave everything to us — his time, his energy, his dreams.” She still texts his number every day and her mind replays what happened to him “over and over.” Asheri Hiyansa Amarakoon, 13, wrote that she sometimes cries when she sees her father's photos or hears his favourite songs, and that her home feels different now: “nothing feels normal anymore.” She worries her family might not be able to afford the higher education she needs to pursue her new dream, conceived after her father’s death, to become a lawyer so that “no one has to lose their dad like I did.” The family’s third statement was written on behalf of three-year-old Kaylee Atarah Amarakoon, who may be young, “but feels her father’s absence deeply.” “She asks for him all the time — why he doesn’t come home, why he doesn't call.” She speaks to his photographs in the house, and gets upset seeing children with their fathers. Kaylee is also newly anxious; showing “signs of insecure attachment that were never there before.” Dhanushka Wickramasinghe’s brother couldn’t bring himself to speak, so assistant Crown prosecutor Sophie Reynolds read for him. He wrote that he dropped everything to come to Canada and support his brother, leaving his wife and child back home in Sri Lanka. “I cannot leave him alone in this unbearable sorrow,” but every day he feels torn between his duties as a brother and his need for his family. He feels helpless, he wrote, “watching my family fall apart in two countries.” Visitors' visas for his wife and daughter were denied, robbing their family of the “warmth and comfort” they would bring. Permanent residency applications filed by both brothers and their father have been pending for over a year. “The waiting has become a torment,” he added. 'By helping others, I can honour them' The last to speak was Dhanushka Wickramasinghe, hands on the podium, head bent, struggling sometimes to get the words out. He said he chose to bring his family to Canada because of all the “opportunities, kindness and beauty” he’d heard about and he worked hard every day to give his family the best life he could. Then he described the attack, but he spent far more time thanking everyone who’s helped him since that night: the doctors and nurses at The Ottawa Hospital’s Civic campus trauma centre who treated him like family, the first responders who saved his life, his friends at the monastery his family frequented who helped him find a new place to live, Ottawa’s mayor, all the lawyers on the case, and more. And he mentioned his charity, which he hopes to continue “for the rest of my life,” supporting school kids in Sri Lanka in need. “This tragedy destroyed my whole world, my wife, my children, my dreams, my peace. I wake up every day with their faces in my heart,” and there can be “no recovery.” But he hopes that “by helping others, I can honour them.” Dhanushka Wickramasinghe ended with a plea to others like him, coming to this “beautiful country” in search of a better life: “Please do not destroy the peace and quiet of this land. Let us protect and respect it.” The judge addressed him afterward. “The fact that you so devote yourself to others after all that has been taken from you, sir, is awe-inspiring. I am humbled by your presence,” he said. “It occurs to me that a family endowed with your value system would have enriched our community, and we are all accordingly diminished by the loss of Inuka, Ashwini, Ranaya, Kelly, and of course your life partner, Darshani.”
