LYNN — Community members held a vigil Friday evening at High Rock Tower for Khosay Sharifi, the 31-year-old optician who fatally shot three family members, and alleged on Facebook that they were responsible for and complicit in abuse within her family, before killing herself.
Lynn residents attended the candlelight vigil in Sharifi’s memory about a week after the killings took place on Tuesday, Aug. 23. Sharifi is believed to have killed her 66-year-old father and 34-year-old brother-in-law inside her home at 98 Rockaway St. and her brother-in-law’s father on Laighton Street before turning the gun on herself inside her car near the Washington Street Stop & Shop. The shootings unfolded beginning at 2:53 p.m. and her Facebook post was published at 3:06 p.m. In it, she alleges that her brother-in-law abused her sister for 14 years.
“My parents & his parents knew all these years but have not really done much but say ‘work it out’ ‘what will people say if you separate’ or even victim blaming,” she wrote.
Members of the Sharifi family and some of Sharifi’s co-workers attended the vigil. One co-worker addressed attendees and called Sharifi “a hero” and said she was going to miss her. Sharifi’s sister, Lema, spoke briefly to the crowd.
“Thank you for all your love,” she said. “It’s helpful. Thank you. That’s all I’m going to say.”
A GoFundMe funeral fundraiser for the Sharifi family, organized by Lema Sharifi, includes a statement from the family.
“We have lost four loved ones in devastating and unforeseen circumstances,” the statement reads. “We are absolutely traumatized, heartbroken, and lost.”
Ireny Delacruz of Lynn lives near the Sharifi home at 98 Rockaway St. She said although she did not directly witness the shootings, she heard the entire incident unfold. She said she and fellow Lynn resident Heather Colahan organized the vigil to bring awareness to domestic abuse and violence.
“It’s sad and it’s a tragedy,” Delacruz said. “It doesn’t matter where you come from or what language you speak, you really have to talk to someone to avoid all of this.”
Rachel Barber can be reached at [email protected].
