Nick Donofrio’s family pay tribute to ‘loving’ son who was shot dead after entering wrong home

The dad and mom of a South Carolina faculty pupil are mourning the lack of their son after he was fatally shot when he entered the wrong home by mistake.
Nicholas Anthony Donofrio, 20, was a pupil on the College of South Carolina and lived on the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity home, his dad and mom advised native information station WTNH. In accordance to the Metropolis of Colombia Police Division, Donofrio was mistaken for a burglar and shot within the early morning hours of 26 August after he tried to enter a residence just a few homes away from the fraternity on South Holly Road.
Authorities stated {that a} 911 name was initially made relating to an ongoing housebreaking, nevertheless it later escalated to a taking pictures state of affairs. Donofrio was pronounced dead on the scene.
The younger man had just lately moved into the fraternity’s off-campus home forward of the beginning of his junior 12 months on the college. Donofrio, a Kinesiology and Train Science main, was trying ahead to residing on the fraternity home with 4 shut buddies.
”[Nick was] an important son, loving, compassionate, all of the traits you’d need in a son,” Donofrio’s grieving dad and mom stated in an announcement to WTNH.
Donofrio was initially from Madison, Connecticut and graduated highschool in 2021.
“When officers arrived on the scene, they discovered a deceased male on the entrance porch with a gunshot wound to the higher physique,” the Metropolis of Columbia Police stated in an announcement. “Preliminary data signifies that Donofrio who resided on South Holly Road tried to enter the wrong home when he was fatally shot.”
Lessons on the College of South Carolina resumed on 23 August.
“Our Scholar Affairs workforce is offering assets and assist to these who could also be affected by this tragedy, and we remind all of our college students that assistance is at all times accessible to them,” the college stated in an announcement to The State.
In South Carolina, people haven’t any obligation to retreat and are allowed to use lethal pressure in the event that they’re not engaged in illegal exercise and are in a spot the place they’ve a proper to be — corresponding to their home or administrative center. The state’s “stand your ground” laws additionally restrict regulation enforcement’s capacity to instantly arrest the shooter in the event that they declare they had been attacked first or performing in self-defence.
The Metropolis of Columbia Police Division stated the investigation stays ongoing and it’ll seek the advice of with the solicitor’s workplace relating to the circumstances surrounding the case and whether or not costs might be filed.