Grieving dad can’t fathom son’s murder
Rob Lamberti, Sun Media
BRAMPTON: Despair overwhelmed Nihal Badhanage on Monday as he spoke
of his murdered son. He quie
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Badhanage: Shocked. Picture by Rob Lamberti |
tly gasped for air and his eyes remained
moist and red as he tried to understand the inexplicable randomness of
the stabbin
g death of 16-year-old Akila on a beautiful Friday afternoon.
“He’s a very outstanding boy,” Badhanage said “He’s handsome. He’s
very good in sports.
“He’s never been in trouble, he always tried to help his colleagues
with their studies.”
Akila, a Grade 12 student at North Park Secondary School, was heading
to a bus stop to go to his part- time job at Tim Hortons, earning money
for university next year, after visiting a schoolmate.
Somewhere along Lord Simcoe Dr., in what police have called a
completely unprovoked attack, fo
ur or five young men confronted the
victim, swarmed him and stabbed him. Akila stumbled to the bus stop and
collapsed, while the killers fled north on Dixie Rd., throwing the knife
into an adjoining backyard. On Sunday, his father sat on his son’s bed
and openly wept, holding his son’s report card, which showed an average
of 89%.
“To kill a person, even to hit a person, you should have very big
anger,” said Badhanage, whose family, including wife Indria, and two
other sons, aged 7 and 13, arrived from Sri Lanka in 2002.
“To kill a person? How do they feel to kill a person? I think those
people are not ordinary people. They may be mentally disordered people.”
Badhanage was proud that his son wanted to improve his already
outstanding grades, proud that he wanted to study electrical engineering
at University of Waterloo and proud of the teen’s love of tennis and
cricket.
Akila lived in a spartan bedroom in a semi-detached home in west
Brampton, with white walls spotted with posters of cars and a Chinese
calendar. In a corner, atop his desk, rests a copy of William Golding’s
Lord of the Flies, a job resume and a bronze award for academics and
athletics from his high school.
Badhanage, 44, said his son was carrying only a cellphone purchased
three days earlier and between $10 and $15. Nothing, he said, worth a
life.
Asked what he would say to the young men who robbed him of his son,
Badhanage replied, “I would tell them: Why did they kill this innocent
boy, just for the sake of a little thing? Maybe he didn’t have much
money in his wallet.”
He urged the killers to surrender — or those who know them to tell
police.
Police are also asking anyone with information to call 905-453-3311,
ext. 3205, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. Peel homicide Dets. Tom
Warfield and Dave Kennedy said investigators are at a loss for the
motive. Akila didn’t live the life that leads to trouble, they said.
They haven’t ruled out a robbery-motivated swarming, but the most
valuable item Akila owned was a cellphone. “Even if it was robbery, what
did he have?” Warfield asked. “Did he dis somebody?”
Toronto Sun
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