Eleven-year-old Kieran Shafritz de Zoysa spent his spring break in Lakeside where his father lives. Just a week later, he became one of the victims of the bombings in Sri Lanka.
It's estimated that 250 people were killed when suicide bombers struck three churches and three hotels in the country on Easter morning. It’s one of the world’s deadliest terrorist attacks in recent years.
Kieran was in Sri Lanka with his mother whose family lives there. He was studying abroad at a school there. Kieran wanted to become a neuroscientist to cure diseases, like Alzheimer's.
"He was motivated by helping people, that was what kind of guided him. It was amazing that he was that insightful and altruistic at his age," said Kieran's father, Alexander Arrow.
Kieran was at a hotel in Columbo, the commercial capital of Sri Lanka, having brunch with his mother and grandmother when a suicide bomber detonated a bomb. Kieran died after being struck by shrapnel. His mother and grandmother survived the attack.
Arrow, Kieran's father, joins Midday Edition on Thursday to share his son's story.
