The ex-wife of the man who killed 50 people and wounded 53 others during a shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub early Sunday morning described him as violent, “very short-tempered” and physically abusive.
Sitora Yusufiy has been staying in Boulder. She spoke to the FBI for about an hour Sunday afternoon about her ex-husband, 29-year-old Omar Seddique Mateen of Fort Pierce, Florida.
"I was woken up by my parents calling me saying 'Sitora wake up!' I thought something horrible happened," she said. "I called them and the first thing they told me was 'Your ex-husband was involved in a mass shooting.'"
It was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
"I was devastated, shocked, starting shaking and crying because -- more than anything -- -because I was so, so deeply hurt and heartbroken for the people who lost their loved ones," Yusufiy said.
She met Mateen online, and moved up to Florida to be with him. They got married in 2009.
“In the beginning, he was a normal being who cared about his family, loved to joke, loved to have fun, but then a few months after we got married, I saw his instability,” Yusufiy said.
She says he began physically abusing her, and barred her from seeing her family.
And, after four months of marriage, her family came to save her.
"My family literally rescued me," Yusufiy said. "The night that they were there, they had to pull me out of his arms and buy an emergency flight. I left all of my belongings, and filed a police report."
Yusufiy hasn't spoken to Mateen in nearly seven years. Their divorce was finalized in 2011.
"I guess because I was the only one in his life, most of the violence was toward me at the time," she said.
Yusufiy says Mateen did own a gun when she knew him, and wanted to be a police officer. He was working as a correctional officer at a juvenile delinquent center to gain experience in law enforcement.
According to federal officials, Mateen used an AR-15-style weapon and a handgun -- both purchased legally -- during the attack.
Investigators have said he called 911 before the shooting, pledging allegiance to ISIS.
Yususify said the shooter spoke of hating people who are gay "a few times" but never expressed terrorist leanings.
There was one thing Yusufiy says could explain her ex-husband's actions.
"He was mentally unstable and mentally ill," she said. "That's the only explanation I can give and he was obviously disturbed."
Mateen was killed in a firefight with Orlando Police three hours after he began opening fire outside the Pulse Orlando nightclub.
The FBI had interviewed him twice: once after investigators became aware of “inflammatory comments” he had made toward coworkers, and once because of an association with Moner Mohammad Abusalha, an American who carried out a suicide bombing in Syria.
