Ex-wife of Orlando shooter says he was mentally ill

The shooter authorities say is responsible for the deadliest-ever shooting in the U.S. was “unstable and mentally ill”, his ex-wife said Sunday.

“In the beginning he was a normal being that cared about family, loved to joke, loved to have fun, but then a few months after we were married I saw his instability. I saw that he was bipolar and he would get mad out of nowhere,” Sitora Yusufiy said during a press conference in Colorado.

“That's when I started worrying about my safety.”

She said while she lived with Omar Mateen he would not allow her to communicate with her family and that was her family that rescued her from the abusive relationship.

“He started abusing me physically, very often, and not allowing me to speak to my family, keeping me hostage from them,” she said. “[Her family] had to pull me out of his arms.”

Authorities have identified Mateen as the shooter who killed at least 50 people and injured 53 others at a gay nightclub in Orlando.

Mateen called 911 minutes before launching the onslaught at the Pulse club and declared his allegiance to the Daesh terrorist group, according to NBC News.

“To be in some way affiliated, at one point in my life, to somebody that causes such a tragedy-- it shook me,” Yusufiy said.