A Ghanaian pastor has been arrested on a murder charge after Orlando police say he shot and killed his 27-year-old wife outside her job at the Navy Federal Credit Union near the Mall, Millenia Tuesday morning, report says.
Barbara Tommey was shot several times by her husband, Sylvester Ofori, near the business’ front doors on the 4600 block of Gardens Park Boulevard just before 9 a.m., an Orlando Police Department spokesperson said. Tommey was an employee of Navy Federal Credit Union, the spokesperson said.
Ofori, 35, was taken into custody at his apartment Tuesday evening, the OPD spokesperson said. He is being held at the Orange County Jail without bond on a charge of first degree murder with a firearm.
Police say Sylvester Ofori, 35, shot and killed his wife Barbara Tommey outside her job at Navy Federal Credit Union in Orlando Tuesday morning.
During a press conference Tuesday morning, Chief Orlando Rolón said the shooting was captured on video.
“You can tell that she was surprised by what was happening,” he said.
Word of Ofori’s arrest reached African news outlets, as he is a pastor at Floodgates of Heaven International Ministries, a church based in Parramore. Calling himself a prophet and motivational speaker, Ofori’s ministry has reached tens of thousands of people. His Facebook page has more than 60,000 followers and the church’s page has about 5,600.
A day before the shooting, a photo was posted to his page with the words, “One thing ppl gotta understand about extremely kind, nice, loving people is that their other side is just as EXTREME.”
Hundreds of people responded to the post after news broke of Tommey’s killing, some with prayers for her to rest in peace, others with anger or disbelief about what Ofori’s was accused of doing.
“This was a false prophet,” one commenter wrote. “God warned y’all about false prophets. This guy deserves every pain he gets.”
Christian Post reported that his church is “devastated” after the pastor, who’s also a self-styled prophet with thousands of followers, was charged with fatally shooting his wife outside her job at the Navy Federal Credit Union just two days before their fifth wedding anniversary Tuesday.
“We are all devastated. I have no words. I’m just devastated,” a representative of the church told The Christian Post on Thursday morning.
The representative said while their church had not been meeting for in-person services during the coronavirus pandemic, she “didn’t see any signs there was trouble” in their pastor’s marriage.
“I’m at a loss for words right now. I can’t even think about it,” she said, remembering the pastor’s wife as “a very beautiful person, inside and out.”
The church official noted that she did not want to share additional details regarding the couple due to the ongoing police investigation.
In a court appearance Wednesday, prosecutors told a judge that Tommey’s killing was caught on surveillance video.
“Video surveillance, which shows Mr. Ofori not only shoot his wife but then stand over her body and put additional rounds into her head,” a prosecutor noted in court, according to NBC News affiliate WESH 2.
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