‘It really has rocked us’: Ottawa teens dead after fall through ice from same school
A provincial coroner is investigating after two 17-year-old boys who fell through ice on the Rideau River in Ottawa’s south end Wednesday evening were found dead.
Ontario’s Eastern Region Supervising Coroner’s Office confirmed on Friday that it is probing the deaths of Ahmed Ahmed and Riley Cotter.
Both of them were students at John McCrae Secondary School, a spokesperson for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board confirmed.
Diane Pernari said staff, students and other members of the community are feeling the tragedy deeply.
“We have reached out to the families of the students, and have extended condolences on behalf of the (school) community,” she said Friday.
She added the high school will have mental-health supports available for students when they return to their studies in the new year.
Two graduates of John McCrae came to the area where police were searching on Thursday and said they knew both of the teens.
They said they were at the site of the accident to pay their respects.
Seleina Elata said Ahmed, whom she referred to by the nickname AJ, was the first to be found dead.
She said her friend, who was proud to have been from Iraq, loved coming to the area as he found it peaceful. “He liked how free and open it was.”
Emmah Palmer said on Thursday that she hung out with the pair of boys just “two, three days” before they died.
Police said emergency crews arrived on the scene late Wednesday after a report came in about a group of four teens falling through the ice.
Carly Roome said she called 911 shortly after 9:30 p.m., when a boy ran to her family’s nearby home looking for help.
He had pulled his sister from the water and was dripping wet in socks, shorts and a T-shirt, she said.
Roome said she and her parents
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