An Ashburn, Virginia, family has one more thing to be thankful for this holiday season: Getting away uninjured after a bullet pierced the kitchen wall on Thanksgiving morning, triggering an hours-long standoff between a neighbor and law enforcement.
Ashburn resident Pat Donovan walked into her kitchen early Thursday and found a bullet had shattered tiles before ending up lodged in another wall. According to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, Donovan’s neighbor, Bernard R. Ofori, fired the .45 caliber handgun shot into a shared wall in his home and it went through the wall into Donovan’s home. It’s believed the shot was fired Wednesday night.
“I turned on the light and saw pieces of tile on the floor and I looked up and saw the bullet hole. The next thing I know I’ve got a SWAT team here,” Pat Donovan told WTOP.
“The only thing that stopped the bullet was a piece of metal,” Donovan said.
“The sheriff’s office said, otherwise, it would have continued and hit right above my headboard.”
The incident sparked a standoff between deputies with the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and Ofori that lasted for hours, along MacGlashan Terrace near Belmont Ridge Road.
Ofori, 30, was ultimately arrested and charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and reckless handling of a firearm.
Donovan and her neighbors had to wait at the nearby Belmont Station Elementary School during the standoff.
“They evacuated the whole block,” said Donovan. “They could see him pacing up and down in the house with the gun.”
Now that the traumatic Thanksgiving incident is behind her, Donovan is focused on getting her home repaired, talking with her insurance company and her homeowners association.
But she said she remains disturbed by what happened.
“It’s still kind of an active crime scene,” Donovan said. “Normally I’m a pretty strong person — but I can’t sleep.”
