Loriell Vaughn says the relationship she had with her ex-husband was contentious at best. Her ex, Karl Chludinsky, 46, is the man police say opened fire on Fort Lauderdale police officers Thursday, forcing them to return fire, killing him inside a Holiday Inn Express hotel room.
“Just kind of hit me like a ton of bricks,” Vaughn said, describing the moment she learned the violent and very public way Chludinksly died. “Something I kind of knew something happened and one of my friends sent me an article, so I saw the whole thing."
A Fort Lauderdale Police officer was hit by gunfire in the shootout and is expected to fully recover. No one else was in the room as Chludinsky reported.
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“He was in a hotel. He was on drugs and hallucinating and going off on a rampage like he always does — that people are after him, trying to kill him — just very unstable behavior,” Vaughn said.
She says she feared for her life because he’d threatened her and her family multiple times.
According to court records, Chludinsky had multiple drug arrests dating back to 2006. In 2022, a judge removed firearms from his possession after police completed a risk protection order on him the previous year.
“I, for years, have said that he was unstable and needed help in therapy,” Vaughn said. “I tried to tell them that he shouldn’t have guns and he kept getting guns. He would surrender the guns because I would say something, and then he would have guns again.”
Vaughn says she’s only seen or communicated with Chludinsky through the courts in the last several years. The former couple has an 11-year-old son who up until last year was allowed to stay with his father. She says her ex had mental health treatment but it didn’t work.
She has a message for anyone trying to get out of a dangerous domestic relationship.
“I would just say, don’t ever stop fighting, and don’t stay quiet," she insisted. "You fight for your children and for the people you love, no matter what people tell you."
As traumatic as this has been for Vaughn and her son, she says she now feels like she can breathe again and start to heal.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), visiting www.thehotline.org or texting LOVEIS to 22522.
