US-based Ghanaian pastor charged with first-degree murder after shooting wife

Mildred Europa Taylor September 09, 2020
Sylvester Ofori and his wife

A man, believed to be a pastor, has been arrested after he fatally shot his wife outside her job at the Navy Federal Credit Union near the Mall at Millenia Tuesday morning, the police said.

The woman, 27-year-old Barbara Tommey, was shot by her husband, Sylvester Ofori, near the front door of the business at the 4600 block of Gardens Park Boulevard just before 9 a.m., according to the Orlando Police Department (OPD).

Tommey was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital shortly after the incident.

Barbara Tommey

35-year-old Ofori was taken into custody at his apartment Tuesday evening, said an OPD spokesperson. He is currently being held at the Orange County Jail without bond on a charge of first-degree murder with a firearm.

At a press conference Tuesday morning, Police Chief Orlando Rolón said the shooting was captured on video.

“You can tell that she was surprised by what was happening,” he said.

Ofori and Tommey got married in September 2015, but for months now, Tommey hadn’t lived with her husband as they were in the middle of a divorce, said the police.

Court records cited by the Orlando Sentinel show that Ofori was once arrested in February 2016 by a deputy who saw him arguing with Tommey in a gas station parking lot.

He was charged with resisting without violence after asking to be taken to jail but the case was later dropped.

Last Edited by:iboateng Updated: September 9, 2020

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