Police suspect Carleton student was targeted
Friends agree ‘super smart’ victim was not the type to make enemies
Friends of an international student found beaten to death on an Ottawa footpath say they are stunned by his violent death in what police now suspect was a targeted attack.
Those who knew him say they can think of no one who would want to kill their “super smart” and generous friend.
Tausif Chowdhury was excited to be back in Ottawa and preparing to resume full-time classes in electrical engineering at Carleton University in January after spending two years studying in Windsor and Kingston, friend Khalid Halim said Saturday.
Chowdhury, 23, had previously studied at Carleton before transferring to the other schools, Halim said. Chowdhury’s family was originally from Bangladesh, although Chowdhury came to Canada from Saudi Arabia, where his parents now live.
“He was really happy that he was back in Ottawa at Carleton,” said Halim, who last saw his friend about a month ago. “He was happy to see his old friends. He was just really happy to start his life here.”
Halim, 24, said he was horrified to learn of the way Chowdhury died.
Chowdhury was found lifeless by two cyclists around 7 a.m. Thursday on the Sawmill Creek Pathway, which surrounds the reservoir of the same name and lies between the South Keys transit station and the Airport Parkway bridge. Major crime detectives were quickly called in to head the investigation after there were immediate and obvious signs of trauma to Chowdhury’s body. Police have provided no details about the investigation.
“It is appalling a student would be murdered like that,” said Halim, who is also the past president of the Bangladeshi Student Association at Carleton.
Friend and former roommate Sirajum Munir Mim said he and Halim met with police on Friday after one of Chowdhury’s current roommates had contacted another friend with the news. Mim said the trip to the police station verified their fears.
“It was pretty shocking. I was in tears. We were all in tears,” said Mim, who previously lived with Chowdhury in a row house on McCarthy Road. “Ottawa is a great city. We would never imagine anything like this in Ottawa.”
Halim said police wouldn’t provide many details about what happened.
“They didn’t say anything about how he got attacked, or why, or who. They are still looking into that,” Halim said.
Police believe he was killed Wednesday evening or early Thursday morning.
Investigators have also seized video surveillance footage from the nearby OC Transpo transit station and South Keys Shopping Centre, hoping it could reveal Chowdhury’s final movements before he was killed.
Chowdhury’s backpack was also found nearby, as was a possible weapon.
Mim and Halim said they have since spoken to Chowdhury’s father in Saudi Arabia. He seemed “lost,” Halim said.
Mim said Chowdhury’s father was afraid to tell his mother about what had happened.
Mim, 25, said he can’t understand why someone would kill his friend and former roommate.
“He was very generous, he was very kind, for something like this to happen to him, I would never think about it,” he said. “He was friends with everyone. All colour, all races, all backgrounds. He’d be just hanging around with everyone.”
Former roommate Sayeed Karim, 25, said he was always impressed with Chowdhury’s smarts.
“The things that took me an hour to understand, he used to do it in 30 minutes,” Karim said. “He was very humble. He was always down to earth, always chilling.”
Karim said he hadn’t seen Chowdhury in about two years, but remembered fondly their marathon video game sessions. The two would play FIFA soccer. Chowdhury would play as Barcelona, while Karim was Real Madrid.
“I think we even played FIFA for three straight days. We just slept and got up and played and slept and got up again and played,” Karim said. “The worst thing we’d do is stay up all night.”
When a friend told him Friday that Chowdhury was dead, Karim said he didn’t believe him.
“I thought it was a prank,” Karim said. The homicide was “really, really shocking,” he said.
“We never found him as that kind of guy that would be found in an alley dead,” Karim said. “Was he in a bad crowd or was it just bad luck that he was there at that time? I have no idea.”
Police ask any witnesses who were in the area Wednesday night or Thursday morning and have any information to call the major crime unit at 613-236-1222 ext. 5493 or anonymously call Crime Stoppers at 613-233-8477.