Man who shot Fort Lauderdale cop had history of abuse, mental health issues: sources

Karl Chludinsky was likely in the midst of a mental health episode when he was killed after exchanging gunfire with Fort Lauderdale police who came bursting through his hotel door Thursday, his ex-wife told the Miami Herald. His death marked the end of a declining psychological state that led to familial abuse and drug addiction.

Late Wednesday night, Victoria Loriell Vaughn received a text message from one of her friends, who also happened to be Chludinsky’s former boss, that he was getting bizarre and “crazy” messages from the Margate man.

“Karl kept saying to him, ‘My ex-wife is being sex trafficked and raped in the hotel room next to me. I can hear her screaming,’” Vaughn said, adding that she knew his current ex-wife had already fled to Peru to get away from him.

She underscored this was yet another instance of Chludinsky holing himself up in a hotel room and hallucinating, while possibly doing drugs.

“This is what he does,” Vaughn said. “He has crazy hallucinations where he thinks people are coming to try to kill him.”

Knowing his past, she could only assume the worst.

“I knew it was coming,” she added. “I honestly thought it would be an overdose with him. It’s very sad to see anybody go through this, but he clearly never got the help he needed....”

The next morning, Chludinsky called 911 and told the operator he killed a woman at the Holiday Inn Express, where he was staying. When a SWAT team stormed the room after he didn’t answer their calls, he shot and injured an officer. Police subsequently opened fire before he barricaded himself.

By the time officers were able to get to him, he was dead.

READ MORE: Man who shot cop killed in gunfire after calling 911 from Fort Lauderdale hotel: police

Vaughn told the Herald she felt a sense of relief when she learned he was dead. She proceeded to point out how Chludinsky’s drug use and mental health struggles had led to years of abuse that caused their marriage to dissolve and a fierce legal battle over the custody of their child.

“My kids and I have been living in hell for six years,” she said. “I’m glad that it is over. I can’t even explain the PTSD... because I have only been trying to survive financially, emotionally and physically.”

Just a few years earlier, Chludinsky had a mental health episode that forced the Margate Police Department to confiscate his guns — but that decision would not last long, according to records.

Potentially dangerous individual?

In January 2022, Chludinsky’s then-girlfriend and mother were so worried about his erratic behavior and hallucinations that they took him to the Henderson Behavioral Health Centralized Receiving Center, 4720 N State Road 7, according to a Margate police investigation report.

The director of the center, Elizabeth Gelpi, was compelled to alert the police and have him Baker Acted after the facility learned more about his condition.

Both his mother and then-girlfriend explained to Gelpi that he was going through a mental breakdown, particularly after he thought his bed was sinking into the ground. The pair said they even had to convince him to take a gun out of his mouth as he threatened to kill himself, the report read.

Chludinsky’s immediate family did not respond for comment.

During an evaluation, Gelpi described Chludinsky as “paranoid with persecutory delusions and hallucinations,” the report read. He said he had guns in his home and car, and admitted to threatening to kill himself.

He was diagnosed with unspecified psychosis and schizophrenia, the report read. This prompted Gelpi to Baker Act Chludinsky and have him taken to the Florida Medical Center, 5000 W Oakland Park Blvd. She also called Margate police and informed them he had weapons.

She told an officer she felt “this individual could potentially be dangerous in the future.”

The department was granted a temporary risk protection order, which allowed officers to take several of his firearms and ammunition, said Lt. Michael Druzbik, a Margate police spokesperson. The report listed a shotgun and two handguns in his possession.

When the order expired in April 2023, Druzbik said the department allowed Chludinsky to retrieve his weapons, as per their policy.

‘Threatened to kill me’

Vaughn and Chludinsky met in 2009 while on staff at Calvary House in Fort Lauderdale, a faith-based drug rehabilitation program.

Vaughn said she knew he was several years clean from a drug habit that he picked up at 14-years-old, but the man he became after led her to marry him in 2011.

“The man that I met and knew at that time, unless he was a very good actor, was nothing like [he was recently],” she said. “He had a very rough childhood, a very crazy upbringing. So there were a lot of things I knew that he hadn’t really dealt with.”

In 2006, he was sentenced to a year in the Broward County Jail and more than a year of probation for possession of cocaine and other charges, according to Broward court records.

Vaughn had a son and brought another boy into the world with Chludinsky. Over the following years, she said she tried to get him to help through therapy and other outlets but was ultimately rebuffed.

Around 2017, Chludinsky’s best friend, whom he met at the Cavalry House and introduced him to Vaughn, died from an overdose. That was the major turning point for the worst, Vaughn said.

She said his drug habits picked up again. Consequently, he became more aggressive with her and her children.

In one instance, he held a knife to her throat.

“He threatened to kill me if I ever left him,” she said.

He would then go on to tell her mother that he should have cut off Vaughn’s head and thrown it in a canal, she said. One dispute escalated to the point that she had to barricade herself away from him in fear for her life.

This alleged constant verbal abuse moved her to file domestic violence paperwork in Broward County family court and have his visitation rights revoked, records show.

The case was settled and he was allowed to retain visitation for his son. Vaughn said the abuse continued against them both, even though she adamantly told police and the courts about his drug addiction.

The interactions escalated when Chludinsky sexually assaulted one of her family members, she said, prompting her to again file a domestic violence complaint, records corroborated.

This case was dropped after judges and lawyers called the accusations “hearsay,” Vaughn said.

Aside from Vaughn’s claims, records show domestic violence paperwork was filed against Chludinsky three more times, by two different women. Those cases were also either dropped or settled.

Vaughn said she’s spent nearly $200,000 in court fees trying to battle Chludinsky’s abuse and allegations for years. Being a single mom and assistant teacher, she’s endured perpetual financial strife from the circumstances.

“Our entire life was literally taken from us,” she said. “The trauma that I’ve watched my own children go through. It’s been just a lot.”