The family of 19-year-old Mohamed Ali Hassan said they were too distraught to speak to reporters after learning their son was left to die in a neighbourhood park, with police alleging he had been stabbed about 18 times.

Police found a kitchen knife at the crime scene, and a witness led investigators to a nearby home, where they arrested 26-year-old Michael “Mikey” Leblanc, and later charged him with second-degree murder.

The witness told police he saw a man running from the crime scene wearing a blood-stained hooded sweatshirt, and after searching the home, police turned up a garment that fit the description.

(…)Leblanc appeared in court by video link Tuesday.

While believed to be drug-related, the fatal stabbing is the second homicide in as many months with ties to a national security investigation that dismantled a terror network in the capital a year ago.

Police were investigating a grey Ford Escape that was parked at the scene Monday.

The vehicle is registered to a family member of twin brothers Ashton and Carlos Larmond — both charged in January 2015 following an extensive RCMP terror probe — who grew up on the same King George Street block.

(…)With files from Shaamini Yogaretnam and Andrew Seymour