‘I’ve got him with a cord around his throat,’ heard in Lake Murray 911 home invasion call

A newly released, desperate 911 call captures much of a June burglary during which a local Southern rock musician broke into his ex-girlfriend’s Lake Murray home and was killed in what investigators determined was a justifiable homicide.

“He’s banging on my door and he won’t leave,” the female caller says of the man, later identified as her ex-boyfriend, Keith Dominick. “He’ll probably leave before you get here, but I can’t do this anymore. I can’t,” she says in a recording of the call obtained by The State newspaper.

Dominick, 53, died June 14 of blood loss and strangulation at his ex-girlfriend’s home on the 500 block of Hiller Road in Chapin, officials said. He “severely cut his arm” while breaking into the home and threatened the woman with a gun, investigators said.

Once Dominick got inside, the victim ran to her bedroom after he threatened her with his gun, officials said. She wrestled with him and knocked the gun out of his hand and was then able to pin him to the floor when he tried to retrieve the gun.

“The victim feared if he was able to reach the gun he would kill her,” Sheriff Leon Lott said at the time.

After telling the dispatcher that Dominick was “just banging” on the door, the woman is then heard screaming and tells the dispatcher, “He’s in, he came in!”

“Keith, please leave me alone,” she says in the recording. “Leave me alone!”

A male voice, apparently Dominick’s, is heard on the other end of the line. However, his comments are indiscernible.

“Let me see your cut,” the female voice says, and a short time later asking, “What do you need?”

Much of the nearly 15-minute call plays out in the background, punctuated by the dispatcher repeatedly saying, “Hello?”

“Keith, I just ... I want to live my life,” the woman says at one point. “I want to live for you. I couldn’t give you what you wanted.”

The woman tells Dominick that he’s “being so irrational” and “not even thinking.”

“You think this is the best way for you to do it?” she asks. “No,” the male voice responds.

“Then why are you doing this?” she asks.

The next few minutes are difficult to decipher, and background noise indicates some type of struggle taking place.

“You’re the worst (expletive) actor I’ve ever seen in my life,” the woman is heard saying later.

About 12 minutes into the call, the woman gets back on the phone with the dispatcher, who asks if everything is OK.

“No, I’ve got him on the floor,” she says. “I’ve got him strangled right now. I’ve got him with a cord around his throat. I’m holding it as tight as I can. How much longer?”

When the dispatcher tells the woman that deputies should be at the home, she responds, “They’re here. I don’t have a shirt on because he ripped it off.” She asks the dispatcher if he heard “all of that,” apparently referring to the preceding struggle.

“Come in!” she yells. “Please, come in! Get in here! I’m back here. He broke in.”

This story was originally published July 17, 2017 at 2:45 PM with the headline "‘I’ve got him with a cord around his throat,’ heard in Lake Murray 911 home invasion call."