Ex-wife of suspected Orlando shooter: He was 'disturbed,' would 'express hate toward everything'

(Image credit: Twitter.com/ReporterAshley)

last updated 13 June 2016

The ex-wife of the suspected Orlando shooter said that, during their brief marriage, he was "mentally unstable" and "obviously disturbed."

Sitora Yusufiy held a news conference Sunday in Boulder, Colorado, and expressed her sympathy for the dead, injured, and their families, praying that "they find peace." She said she met Omar Mateen online, and during the early days of their marriage he was "a normal being, he loved to joke and loved to have fun." After a few months, "I saw his instability and I saw he was bipolar and he would get mad out of nowhere," Yusufiy said. "That's when I started worrying about my safety."

She said she was physically abused by Mateen, and he didn't let her speak with family. They realized something was wrong, Yusufiy said, and "they rescued me from the situation." She filed for divorce after four months and moved to New Jersey, leaving Mateen in Florida. She says she cut off all ties with her ex-husband and his family and last spoke with him seven years ago. Yusufiy said Mateen wanted to be a police officer, and would train with friends who were already cops. He had a "history with steroids," and "did follow religion," she said, and "would get in his tempers and would express hate toward everything." The massacre has left her "deeply heartbroken," she said, adding, "To be in some way affiliated at one point in my life to somebody that caused such a tragedy shook me off the ground." You can watch excerpts from her news conference below. Catherine Garcia

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.