Broken glass, gunfire. 911 caller was ‘freaking out’ after USC student shot on porch
In a hushed, fearful voice, a woman told a 911 dispatcher that someone was attempting to break into her Columbia house.
“They’re trying to break in the front door,” she said.
She called just before 2 a.m. on Aug. 26, 2023, as someone pounded on her front door on South Holly Street in the Rosewood neighborhood. In a recording of the 911 call released to The State, the woman urged police to respond quickly.
Only seconds into the call, glass shattered and a gun was fired.
“My boyfriend just shot through the door,” she said. “Please get here fast. ... He says he thinks he hit him.”
Then, tears.
“I’m just freaking out,” she said shakily, between sobs. “Oh my God.”
Killed in the shooting was Nicholas Donofrio, a 20-year-old University of South Carolina student from Connecticut who lived just a few doors away. He was shot in the head. Officers found him dead on the porch.
Donofrio’s friends told police that he was drunk that evening — so drunk that they called an Uber to take him home from a bar and grill near Bluff Road. Police said at the time Donofrio was apparently attempting to enter the wrong home.
The homeowners told police that they were awakened by a loud knocking on their door, and they saw a young man kicking the door. They asked him to “stop,” to “go away.” But he didn’t listen.
Donofrio reportedly broke a glass window pane on the door and reached in to attempt to unlock it from the inside. That’s when one of the residents got a gun and shot a single bullet through the broken window and hit him, according to police.
The 911 call lasted just over four minutes before police arrived at the home.
“They didn’t break in, but ... our door has glass on the top and they broke the glass panel,” the woman told the dispatcher. Her uneven breaths hung heavy in a moment of silence.
“They broke into my f------ house,” someone said in the background.
The dispatcher asked if she could see anyone on the porch.
“There’s somebody out there,” the woman said. “It’s a man and he’s on the ground.”
Donofrio was last seen that night at The Loose Cockaboose, a bar and grill near Williams-Brice Stadium. But when his roommates couldn’t find him, one of Donofrio’s friends also called 911 that night.
“We haven’t heard from him in hours, it was supposed to drop him off at home and he never made it,” the friend told a dispatcher. “I have no idea where he is and we are all incredibly worried.”
The friend said he wanted to file a missing person report.
A Ring security video provided by the City of Columbia showed Donofrio walking past the home. In a second video, he can be seen standing at the front door, before turning to sit down and attempting to call a friend.
Donofrio had begun his sophomore year at the University of South Carolina only days earlier. His death was deemed a justifiable homicide, the Columbia Police Department said. No charges were filed against the homeowners, who were not identified by police.
“If someone is breaking into your house you have a right to believe that you are in danger of death or serious bodily harm,” Jack Swerling, a veteran Columbia defense attorney, said in an August interview with The State. He called the shooting “tragic,” yet a “classic, textbook case” of justifiable homicide under the Protection of Persons and Property Act, often called the “castle doctrine.”
The law protects homeowners who use deadly force while someone is breaking into their property.
“The occupant has to make a split second decision,” Swerling said. “You can certainly see how they believed they were in imminent peril.”
Donofrio’s death rocked the university community.
“This was a tragic event,” USC President Amiridis told The State in a September interview. “The most difficult part of my job is when I talk to the parents of a student that we lost.”
Donofrio was an exercise science student and a member of Phi Kappa Sigma at USC. The fraternity memorialized him in a post on Instagram.
“We celebrate a life that touched us profoundly,” fraternity brothers wrote. “Through his kindness, passion, and unwavering support, his legacy lives on as a guiding light. While he may have left our side, his essence lingers in stories, lessons, and loved shared.”
