CITRUS HEIGHTS-

The family of Joseph Corey tell FOX40 that they can’t believe he allegedly shot and killed an animal control officer Wednesday for trying to get his dogs.

“To kill somebody is very bad,” said Sarah Corey, Joseph’s ex-wife.

Sarah didn’t get much sleep Wednesday night. She knew Joseph was in a lot of trouble.

“I was afraid he was going to get shot for sure by the SWAT team,” she said.

Sarah was married to Joseph for 17 years. She had four children with him, so when deputies told her that Joseph had shot someone and was now barricaded in his home, she was shocked.

“He’s never done anything violent like that. I just can’t believe it that he would do something like that,” she said.

She told FOX40 that Corey was a firefighter in Fairfax, Va., and for a private lab company in Livermore, Calif. Sarah says he was a good father and a good man but as he got older, his mental stability began to slip.

“He definitely has some mental problems. I think he needs to be in a home,” said Sarah Corey.

Over the past couple of years, she says Joseph became extremely compulsive.

“Just mainly not throwing away papers collecting papers hoarding boxes,” said Sarah Corey.

Sarah says Joseph became a shut in. His eight dogs and his things became his whole world, and she believes the thought of losing it all caused him to snap.

“He loved them it was his only companion,” said Sarah Corey.

Mental illness runs in the family, she told FOX40. Sarah hopes Joseph gets the help he needs behind bars.