A local family was in deep mourning Thursday after Ottawa police divers recovered the body of a 17-year-old high school student who fell through the ice of the Rideau River alongside three friends.
Two members of the group, a 15-year-old female and a 17-year-old male, managed to scramble to shore after also going through the ice near Nicolls Island, north of Manotick. They were taken to CHEO for treatment of mild hypothermia.
Police divers continued the search and were successful in locating the body of another 16-year-old boy, who has been missing since the accident late Wednesday evening.
A police diver was also injured in the late evening search conducted for the missing teenagers. Ottawa Police Service spokesperson Carole Lavigne said the officer was taken to hospital, but was doing well.
The teenager whose body was recovered from the river has been publicly identified as Ahmed Haitham, 17, a student at Barrhaven’s John McCrae Secondary School who arrived in Canada as a refugee from Iraq about a decade ago.
He had been expected to graduate high school early in 2024, and wanted to become a police officer, according to a GoFundMe page set up to help the family with funeral costs.
According to page organizer Hasan Haitham, the four teenagers had been skating when they broke through the ice while wearing heavy winter clothes.
A memorial was started on a fence outside Haitham’s Barrhaven home. “He was joyful, generous, thankful and forgiving,” the tribute from his family read. “He loved animals and helping others and chased his dreams always with a smile.”
Around a dozen people were gathered around the memorial, adorned with roses and other flowers, early on Thursday evening, and mourners poured cups of tea. His family declined additional comment, saying they were in shock over the loss of “an angel.”
“It is absolutely tragic,” Barrhaven West Coun. David Hill said. “I feel terrible for the family and friends impacted.”
Police divers concentrated Thursday’s search for the missing 16-year-old in the water south of Nicolls Island Road, on the south side of the Long Island Stone Arch Dam.
Nicolls Island was created by construction of the Rideau Canal and is located in the Rideau River, north of Manotick. The canal’s Long Island Locks are situated between Nicolls Island and the east bank of the Rideau River.
On Thursday, the river south of Nicolls Island was half covered in a thin layer of ice; the other half of the river was open water.
