An Ottawa father believed to have killed his two young sons before taking his own life had previously threatened to “kill everyone around” his ex-wife, leave her “disabled in a wheelchair” and turn her into a “worldwide story,” according to court records.
Mohammed Al-Lami, 40, had been placed on probation over the disturbing threats, but not before repeatedly rejecting opportunities to resolve the criminal case without going to trial.
Al-Lami is now believed to have killed his sons, ages 7 and 12, inside his Ottawa home before he was found dead Monday in the Kemptville area.
Police discovered the children while conducting a wellness check. At their mother’s request, authorities have not released their names.
Investigators have also connected the case to a fire at a dental office in Iroquois, Ontario, where Al-Lami worked, according to statements from the Ottawa Police Service.
The shocking deaths came more than two years after Al-Lami sent his ex-wife a threatening email in January 2024.
According to CBC News, prosecutors offered to resolve the charges with a one-year peace bond, which could have allowed Al-Lami to avoid a criminal record. He rejected the offer and eventually represented himself at trial.
“I will kill everyone around you and your pimp … in a very wild and savage way,” Al-Lami allegedly wrote in the email. “I won’t kill you. I will leave you alone, disabled in a wheelchair that you can’t move, even to visit your loved ones’ graves.”
He also allegedly warned, “I’ll make you an example of the unfair justice system. I will make you a worldwide story.”
Al-Lami’s ex-wife testified that the couple divorced in 2022 and shared two children. She said he stopped paying child support during the same month he sent the threatening message.
She also told the court that he had threatened her in the past, although those threats were usually delivered in Arabic or were less direct.
“I was actually astonished because I was asking him for child support,” she testified, according to CBC News. “I did not expect this.”
She said she ultimately reported the email because she was afraid of what Al-Lami might do in the future.
“I just don’t know what can happen,” she told the court. “I just didn’t want to live with the unpredictability.”
After prosecutors finished presenting their case, Ontario Court Justice Norman Boxall asked Al-Lami whether he wanted to offer any defense.
“I don’t have anything to say, Your Honour,” Al-Lami replied.
The judge then questioned why he had rejected the prosecution’s offer and allowed the case to go to trial.
“I don’t understand why you’ve done this trial,” Boxall said. “The Crown made you an offer which would have guaranteed you wouldn’t have a criminal record. You turned it down, for reasons I don’t understand.”
At Al-Lami’s sentencing hearing in April, Assistant Crown Attorney David Rodgers asked for 18 months of probation, participation in a domestic violence intervention program and an order requiring Al-Lami to provide a DNA sample.
“We don’t have any evidence about remorse, we don’t have any evidence about insight, [and there’s been] no acceptance of responsibility, so I just have a concern in terms of future conduct,” Rodgers told the court.
The judge instead granted Al-Lami a conditional discharge and placed him on probation for 12 months. The court declined the prosecution’s requests for treatment programming and a DNA order.
Al-Lami’s defense lawyer had previously been allowed to withdraw from the case in December 2025 after telling the court that their attorney-client relationship had broken down.
Another lawyer appearing on the attorney’s behalf said Al-Lami had made allegations against his counsel and threatened to report him to the Law Society of Ontario.
When Al-Lami complained that his attorney had pressured him to accept the peace bond, Ontario Court Justice Julie Bourgeois appeared stunned that he had refused it.
“If there’s a peace bond on the table, sir, you take it and run,” Bourgeois said.
Clarissa Arthur, executive director of Nelson House of Ottawa Carleton, told CBC News that refusing to accept responsibility and blaming others can be common warning signs in abusive relationships.
“Externalizing responsibility is a key indicator” of intimate partner violence, Arthur said.
Investigators reportedly found a handwritten, multi-page note inside Al-Lami’s home after the boys were killed.
In the note, Al-Lami allegedly blamed his ex-wife, family court and the criminal justice system for what happened. He also named three people he considered corrupt, leading police and a specialized Ontario Provincial Police unit to check on their safety.
Ottawa police said Thursday that several forensic examinations were still underway and that more information would be released once those processes were completed.
Authorities said they are continuing to support the boys’ mother and will honor her request to keep the children’s identities private.
