On September 8, 2020, just before 9 a.m., police say a shooting happened outside a Navy Federal Credit Union on Gardens Park Boulevard in Orlando, Florida. There a woman was shot in the head multiple times. She was pronounced dead at Orlando Regional Medical Center later that morning.
The victim was identified as 27-year-old Barbara Tommey. She was an employee at the Navy Federal Credit Union.
Officials said she was shot and killed by her husband, 39-year-old Sylvester Ofori, as she arrived for work. The entire incident was recorded on surveillance video and police said that after Ofori shot his wife and she collapsed.
Witness told detectives that Ofori was holding a gun and was following his wife as she walked toward the bank. She knocked on the doors to get someone to let her in but Ofori shot her once and she collapsed a few feet away from her husband.
Witnesses say he then walked over to her as she lay dying and shot her a few more times in the head. He then walked back to his rented Dodge Journey, and drove away “as though nothing happened.”
Tommey’s sister recorded a fight between the estranged pair just a day earlier in which he promised to take her life, detectives confirmed. In what appears to be a portion of the video posted on Facebook, Ofori is introduced in an apparent headlock by his brother-in-law.
Ofori would later be released by his brother-in-law, who accuses him of being a “fake.” The pastor then accuses his wife of being a “witch.” Before leaving the apartment where the fight takes place, he declares to his brother-in-law, “Can I promise you something? If I don’t kill your sister then I am fake.”
His wife urged her brother-in-law not to call the police as it would only “escalate” things.
Police said the couple had been estranged and had not been living together for about three months.
Officers obtained a warrant and searched the couple’s apartment, where Ofori was taken into custody. He was charged with first-degree murder.
On July 25, 2024, a Florida judge sentenced Ofori to life in prison.
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