A father killed his two young sons in southeast Ottawa on June 29 before then setting fire to his dental practice in Iroquois and dying by suicide in a parking lot outside Kemptville, Ottawa police said in a news release detailing the homicide investigation into the deaths.
The police statement provides the first detailed chronology of the events surrounding the slayings , which homicide unit investigators concluded 40-year-old Mohammed Al-Lami undertook the day after he picked up his two sons, ages seven and 12, for a scheduled visit.
Al-Lami, a dentist, was divorced from the mother of the two boys.
According to police, Al-Lami picked the boys up on the afternoon of Saturday, June 27.
The boys were last known to be alive on the evening of June 28, a Sunday, when they were at their father’s residence on Mandevilla Crescent in the area of Bank Street and Leitrim Road.
Early on Monday, June 29, Al-Lami set alight his dental practice in the town of Iroquois, located on the shore of the St. Lawrence River about an hour and a half drive southeast of Ottawa.
He then apparently drove a leased 2026 four-door Ford Explorer to a carpool lot near Highway 416 and Rideau River Road outside Kemptville before dying by suicide in the vehicle.
“Investigators examined the three scenes, completed interviews, reviewed financial and digital records and considered forensic and post-mortem findings,” the July 21 Ottawa Police Service news release said. “The evidence established that Al-Lami acted alone.”
Because Al-Lami is deceased, police cannot lay charges in connection to the homicides of the boys. The probe’s findings have been communicated to the children’s mother, who requested that their names not be released publicly. Police asked that the family’s privacy continue to be respected.
Investigators said that the probe had “identified a history of intimate partner violence and continuing conflict involving parenting arrangements and financial support.
“While no single circumstance can fully explain this violence, the evidence indicates that these issues likely formed part of the context leading to the deaths.”
The findings are consistent with audio recordings from a short, unusual criminal trial earlier in 2026, first reported by the CBC , that followed charges laid against Al-Lami after he sent a threatening email to his ex-wife that also included threats against her current partner.
“I will kill everyone around you, and your pimp including himself in a very wild, savage way,” the email read, according to courtroom proceedings.
Al-Lami’s email went on: “or you pay for it either through the child support or whatever I feel suitable to respond to your actions till I end it the way I like for you and you (sic) pig.”
In the recordings, Ontario Court Justice Norman Boxall can be heard more or less pleading with Al-Lami to accept the terms of a Crown deal to resolve his matter with a one-year peace bond.
Al-Lami had no criminal record and was representing himself.
Rather than accept the offer, which would have guaranteed that Al-Lami would walk away without a criminal record, provided he abided by routine conditions, he insisted on a trial.
He did so while refusing to speak with a female lawyer appointed by the court to cross-examine his ex-wife.
The trial concluded without his testifying or presenting any evidence or arguments.
“The Crown had made you an offer which would have guaranteed you wouldn’t have a criminal record,” Boxall told Al-Lami at one point. “You turned it down for reasons I don’t understand. And then you didn’t testify, you didn’t make any arguments.”
According to his ex-wife’s testimony, she and Al-Lami were married twice, in 2012 and 2015, in Jordan, although they were originally from Iraq. They separated in 2017 and got divorced in 2022.
The woman said she had received the threatening email in email in response to an email she sent seeking child support. She said that Al-Lami had threatened her before, but that those threats were normally delivered in Arabic or that they came in a less direct form.
“I did not expect this. I thought maybe he was high or something,” she testified.
Al-Lami’s ex-wife also testified that she did not fear him, that she reported the email to police only at the urging of her partner and that, in the interest of her children, she did not want Al-Lami to have a criminal record.
“I don’t think I am scared of him,” she said. “I just don’t know what can happen. I just didn’t want to live with that unpredictability.”
Initially charged with two counts of uttering threats to cause bodily harm, Al-Lami was ultimately found guilty of one count. The Crown withdrew the second charge.
Boxall sentenced Al-Lami to 12 months probation in April.
The judge went on to counsel Al-Lami to go on with his life, but to refrain from contacting his ex-wife.
“These situations are complicated. I don’t pretend to know all the background of the situation. I’m sure it’s complicated,” the judge said.
“The intention of the court is your career goes on, you see your children, you’re a good dad, but the two of you maintain separate lives, but your life goes on otherwise. OK?”
Throughout the trial, Al-Lami barely spoke.
“Sir, did you wish to testify?” the judge asked at one point.
“No, your honour,” Al-Lami responded. “I’m good. Thank you.”
“So that’s the evidence? OK, so no evidence? You’re good?”
“I’m good,” Al-Lami replied again. “Thank you.”
— With files from Michael McBean, Natasha Baldin, Olivia Belovich
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