BY KATHY CHANG
Staff Writer
EDISON — The news of the mass shooting at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, hits close to home in many ways.
Edison police and news media sat outside a Winthrop Road residence on June 12 hours after Omar Mateen allegedly fatally gunned down 49 people and wounded 53 others in the early morning hours in Pulse, a gay Orlando night club. Mateen was killed by responding SWAT officers.
The shooting has been considered the deadliest mass shooting in American history and is being investigated as an act of terrorism.
Mateen was once married to Sitora A. Yusufiy, who according to New Jersey State Division of Elections, had been registered to vote as recent as December 2014 in Edison.
Police Chief Thomas Bryan said he was not at liberty to discuss any information that has been circulating in the media or about why police were present outside the residence.
Yusufiy in a statement with the media in Colorado where she lives now said she was awoken by her parents who told her what had happened.
“They said your ex-husband was involved in a mass shooting and reporters are at our house and calling us and they will probably be at your house, too,” she said. “I was devastated shocked, I started shaking and crying because more than anything I was so, so deeply hurt and heartbroken for the people who lost their loved ones.”
Yusufiy said it’s going to take a while to process the fact that she was in some way affiliated at one point in her life with somebody that caused such a tragedy.
The Pride Center of New Jersey, which is a Highland Park-based organization providing comprehensive programming fostering the health and well-being of the lesbian, gay bisexual, transgender, intersexed and questioning (LGBT) community, held a vigil for the victims and survivors of the mass shooting on June 14 held at the Reformed Church of Highland Park.
“I am in shock and I am deeply saddened by this horrific, inhuman act of violence against the gay community,” said Pandora Scooter, of New Brunswick, who is a member of the Pride Center and helped organize the vigil. “No matter what the reason, this senseless act is so hard to wrap our minds and hearts around and I know that our vigil will be a key step towards healing.”
Mark McSpirit, president of The Pride Center of New Jersey, said the horrible tragedy leaves him “angry, sad and a little lost and bewildered.”
“In reality it could have been any of us anywhere,” he said. “I cannot emphasize enough how we must always remember to be vigilant and protect each other at all times.”
McSpirit added that the LGBT community is strong.
“We must stand tall and support one another with love, kindness and open arms,” he said. “As we all reflect on this horrible event we must all remember our loved ones, allies, and how far we have all come together.”
Abdul Mubarak-Rowe, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NJ), said their organization strongly condemns and rejects the recent mass shooting in Orlando.
“It goes against every Muslim belief these obscenely horrific events” he said.
Mubarak-Rowe said they offer their condolences to the families who lost their loved ones in such a senseless act of hate.
“As Muslims we show are solidarity in New Jersey and have asked [our members to] hold prayer and vigils as well as donate blood for the scores of people who were injured,” he said.