COLUMBIA, S.C. — A concerned student asked police if they had seen his fraternity brother early one Saturday morning after sending the 20-year-old home from a sports bar in an Uber. He hadn’t heard from his friend since, but the rideshare driver had informed him that the young man had passed out on a porch. The caller did not say exactly where or when that happened; all he knew was that his friend’s roommates hadn’t seen him.
About 75 minutes earlier, a panicked woman had told dispatch about an intruder who was shot by her boyfriend after banging on the front door and breaking a glass panel in her home near the campus of the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
The two callers described the same person.
The newly released 911 audio, obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act, reflects the confusion that followed the fatal shooting of Nicholas Donofrio on August 26, 2023. The clips reveal the fear of the residents who lived in the home, say the authorities. Donofrio thought of his own home and the shock of classmates who had been unable to track Donofrio down.
“I have no idea where he is and we are all incredibly worried,” the college friend told police shortly after 3 a.m. He said he last saw Donofrio at The Loose Cockaboose, a bar near USC Stadium.
“I don’t know what I’m asking you to do.”
Several voices rushed to remember the Connecticut native’s attire that night. They eventually learned that Donofrio was last seen wearing a bright pink shirt and multi-colored workout pants.
Prosecutors never charged the man who shot the gun. An investigation by the Columbia Police Department found that the shooter’s actions fell under South Carolina’s so-called “Stand Your Ground” law, which allows deadly force against anyone who “unlawfully and forcibly” enters their home.
A loud bang could be heard in the background of the resident’s call shortly after she quietly told officers that “someone is trying to break into our home.” Immediately after the woman said someone had broken the window, she reported that her boyfriend had shot through the door.
“Please come here quickly,” she said. “He says he thinks he hit him.”
“We have to stay inside until the police get there, right?” she said between heavy breathing and crying.
The officer asked if she could “look outside” and see someone lying on the porch. She replied that the frosted glass of the front door obstructed her view and that the camera on the porch did not provide a good picture. Her boyfriend eventually confirmed that there was a man on the ground.
Police arrived less than five minutes after she called.
The shooting hit the USC community just as fall classes were starting. Donofrio’s fraternity and family have raised more than $140,000 through a GoFundMe page in an effort to establish scholarships for both USC and his high school in Connecticut.
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Pollard is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.