Fearful 911 calls over tragic coed
The University of South Carolina junior who was fatally shot trying to enter the wrong house last year sparked fear for the homeowners and a sense of worry for his friends when they hadn’t heard from him after a night at the bar, two separate 911 calls revealed.
Nicholas Donofrio, 20, had been hanging out with friends at The Loose Cockaboose, a sports bar across from the USC football stadium, before he was put into an Uber and driven back to the area near his off-campus home in Columbia.
“Somebody’s trying to break into our house,” a woman inside the South Holly Street home quietly told a 911 dispatcher around 2 a.m. Aug. 26.
Donofrio had been knocking, banging and kicking on the home’s front door while playing around with the door handle.
A loud bang was heard in the background of the call, later identified as the fatal gunshot the woman’s boyfriend fired through the door and which struck Donofrio in the upper body.
“Please get here fast,” the woman said. “He says he thinks he hit him.”
A Ring doorbell camera captured Donofrio walking up to the home and attempting to turn the door knob as a car turned around in the street before the Connecticut native sat down on a bench outside, according to the video obtained by CT Insider last month.
The Columbia Police Department said Donofrio resided on the same street as the home he attempted to enter and was “highly intoxicated” at the time of the shooting, according to the outlet.
‘Incredibly worried’
“We should stay inside until the cops get here, right?” the caller asked in between heavy breathing and cries before the official asked for someone to “peek out the window.”
The residents inside couldn’t see Donofrio lying on the porch because of the front door’s frosted window and the angle of the home’s security camera.
The person who fired the shot eventually confirmed the Donofrio, 20, was down.
Police arrived at the house five minutes after the call to 911 was placed.
Seventy-five minutes after the fatal shooting, Donofrio’s friends began to worry about his whereabouts and placed their own call to 911.
“I have no idea where he is and we are all incredibly worried,” one friend told the dispatcher as others tried to recall the last thing he was wearing.
“I don’t know what I’m asking you guys to do,” the caller asked as it was determined Donofrio wore a pink shirt and multicolored athletic shorts.
No charges were filed against the man who shot Donofrio, as the Columbia Police Department and the 5th Circuit Solicitor’s Office determined he was justified to protect his property under South Carolina law.
The “Stand Your Ground” law allows deadly force against anyone “unlawfully and forcefully entering” someone’s dwelling.
Following the shooting, Donofrio’s fraternity, Phi Kappa Sigma, created a GoFundMe to create scholarships in his name that would be used at both USC and his Connecticut high school, Daniel Hand HS.