Post by onthejob on May 18, 2013 17:41:05 GMT -5
www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/gunman-killed-in-hofstra-shootings-id-d-by-police-1.5289639
Gunman killed in Hofstra shootings ID'd by police
May 18, 2013 by TANIA LOPEZ, CANDICE FERRETTE, ZACHARY R. DOWDY. AND OLIVIA WINSLOW / tania.lopez@newsday.com,candice.ferrette@newsday.com,zachary.dowdy@newsday.com.olivia.winslow@newsday.com
A Hempstead man was identified by Nassau County Police on Saturday as the armed gunman killed in a home invasion Friday that also resulted in the death of a Hofstra University student.
Police said the armed gunman Dalton Smith, 30, was on parole for first-degree robbery and had an extensive criminal history. Authorities have said police were involved in the shooting, but it wasn't immediately clear who fired the fatal shots or how many rounds were fired.
"We are going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened," Nassau police Chief Rick Capece said. "We have to do this the right way."
Capece said investigators were waiting for the results of a forensic analysis at the crime scene.
On Saturday a police car sat outside the off-campus house where Andrea Rebello, 21, a public relations major from Westchester County, was killed early Friday. Police said the Hofstra junior, who shared the house with her twin sister and several other students, was shot and killed during an early morning break-in Friday that also left Smith dead.
Rebello's twin, Jessica, was also in the Uniondale house at the time of the 2:30 a.m. shooting, but she was not harmed, police said. The house is on California Avenue, about a block south of the college.
Police said Smith barged into the two-story house on California Avenue at 2:20 a.m. and demanded money from the four Hofstra students inside -- the Rebello sisters, a man from Brooklyn and a woman from Connecticut.
The gunman let that unidentified woman leave the house to go to an ATM to get cash. She instead called 911, police said.
Shortly after officers responded to the robbery-in-progress call, "there was a police-involved shooting . . . in the home," a police spokesman said.
Police said a gun was found inside the house. No further details were available.
An emergency scanner transmission between police at about 2:30 a.m. said that a woman had called 911 from a bank to report a home invasion -- and said she had gone to the ATM to withdraw cash while a man was holding a female friend at gunpoint.
About that time, Victoria Dehel, who lives four houses away, said she heard what sounded like fighting. At first she ignored it, figuring it was rowdy students returning from a bar.
Suddenly, she said, she heard a woman's shrieks, followed seconds later by loud bangs.
"It didn't sound good at all," Dehel told The Associated Press. "I turned to my boyfriend and I said, 'I think someone just got murdered.' It was awful."
The shooting rattled students, administrators and faculty at Hofstra, which released a statement Friday morning -- the last day of classes.
"While our hearts are laden with grief, this weekend's commencement ceremonies will go on as scheduled," Hofstra president Stuart Rabinowitz said. "The accomplishments of our graduates must be recognized, and together our community will heal and find the strength to move forward."
He led a moment of silence Friday afternoon during the convocation for about 200 Hofstra honor students who will graduate Sunday.
"All of us will always look back at graduation in 2013 with a sense of sadness," Rabinowitz said afterward, choking up.
A wake for Andrea Rebello will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Coffey Funeral Home, 91 N. Broadway, Tarrytown. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Teresa of Avila Church in Sleepy Hollow; interment will follow at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
Andrea Rebello and her sister were 2010 graduates of Sleepy Hollow High School, according to Principal Carol Conklin-Spillane.
The house where the shooting occurred is across the street from California Avenue Elementary School, which police closed to students and staff Friday as a precaution.
Katherine Park, 27, who lives next door to the victim's house, said her boyfriend woke her after hearing the shots.
Park doesn't know the residents of the rental house, but she said she called police about a loud party there two weeks ago after someone threw a bottle into her yard.
"They're a little rowdy but relatively quiet for undergraduate students," she said.
Melvin Harris, president of the Nostrand Gardens Civic Association in Uniondale and the president of the Hempstead chapter of the NAACP, said Saturday that area residents are eagerly awaiting the police findings.
"Our hearts really go out to this victim's parents. But could it have been prevented?" Harris asked.
Hofstra said counseling services are available for students and that the school has set up a call center for parents and students. The number is 516-463-5800.
The Hofstra University area was relatively quiet on the Saturday before commencement.
Jack Greene, 52, from Sandwich, Mass., was with his son, Tim, 22, who is graduating Sunday with bachelor's degree in marketing and has been living off campus in Uniondale in a house with five other male students.
"You do worry. Everything that happens to someone else's child, you think 'that could have happened to mine,' " Jack Greene said. He said, however, that if his son wasn't graduating, but was coming back next semester, he would not change his son's plans -- though he would worry more.
Tim Greene said that it's always appeared that some of the streets where there is off-campus housing are safer than others -- although he has never felt personally unsafe.
With Sarah Armaghan, Ellen Yan and Bill Mason
Dalton Smith- fvck--g Animal. This is why law abiding citizens should have guns.
Gunman killed in Hofstra shootings ID'd by police
May 18, 2013 by TANIA LOPEZ, CANDICE FERRETTE, ZACHARY R. DOWDY. AND OLIVIA WINSLOW / tania.lopez@newsday.com,candice.ferrette@newsday.com,zachary.dowdy@newsday.com.olivia.winslow@newsday.com
A Hempstead man was identified by Nassau County Police on Saturday as the armed gunman killed in a home invasion Friday that also resulted in the death of a Hofstra University student.
Police said the armed gunman Dalton Smith, 30, was on parole for first-degree robbery and had an extensive criminal history. Authorities have said police were involved in the shooting, but it wasn't immediately clear who fired the fatal shots or how many rounds were fired.
"We are going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened," Nassau police Chief Rick Capece said. "We have to do this the right way."
Capece said investigators were waiting for the results of a forensic analysis at the crime scene.
On Saturday a police car sat outside the off-campus house where Andrea Rebello, 21, a public relations major from Westchester County, was killed early Friday. Police said the Hofstra junior, who shared the house with her twin sister and several other students, was shot and killed during an early morning break-in Friday that also left Smith dead.
Rebello's twin, Jessica, was also in the Uniondale house at the time of the 2:30 a.m. shooting, but she was not harmed, police said. The house is on California Avenue, about a block south of the college.
Police said Smith barged into the two-story house on California Avenue at 2:20 a.m. and demanded money from the four Hofstra students inside -- the Rebello sisters, a man from Brooklyn and a woman from Connecticut.
The gunman let that unidentified woman leave the house to go to an ATM to get cash. She instead called 911, police said.
Shortly after officers responded to the robbery-in-progress call, "there was a police-involved shooting . . . in the home," a police spokesman said.
Police said a gun was found inside the house. No further details were available.
An emergency scanner transmission between police at about 2:30 a.m. said that a woman had called 911 from a bank to report a home invasion -- and said she had gone to the ATM to withdraw cash while a man was holding a female friend at gunpoint.
About that time, Victoria Dehel, who lives four houses away, said she heard what sounded like fighting. At first she ignored it, figuring it was rowdy students returning from a bar.
Suddenly, she said, she heard a woman's shrieks, followed seconds later by loud bangs.
"It didn't sound good at all," Dehel told The Associated Press. "I turned to my boyfriend and I said, 'I think someone just got murdered.' It was awful."
The shooting rattled students, administrators and faculty at Hofstra, which released a statement Friday morning -- the last day of classes.
"While our hearts are laden with grief, this weekend's commencement ceremonies will go on as scheduled," Hofstra president Stuart Rabinowitz said. "The accomplishments of our graduates must be recognized, and together our community will heal and find the strength to move forward."
He led a moment of silence Friday afternoon during the convocation for about 200 Hofstra honor students who will graduate Sunday.
"All of us will always look back at graduation in 2013 with a sense of sadness," Rabinowitz said afterward, choking up.
A wake for Andrea Rebello will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Coffey Funeral Home, 91 N. Broadway, Tarrytown. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Teresa of Avila Church in Sleepy Hollow; interment will follow at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
Andrea Rebello and her sister were 2010 graduates of Sleepy Hollow High School, according to Principal Carol Conklin-Spillane.
The house where the shooting occurred is across the street from California Avenue Elementary School, which police closed to students and staff Friday as a precaution.
Katherine Park, 27, who lives next door to the victim's house, said her boyfriend woke her after hearing the shots.
Park doesn't know the residents of the rental house, but she said she called police about a loud party there two weeks ago after someone threw a bottle into her yard.
"They're a little rowdy but relatively quiet for undergraduate students," she said.
Melvin Harris, president of the Nostrand Gardens Civic Association in Uniondale and the president of the Hempstead chapter of the NAACP, said Saturday that area residents are eagerly awaiting the police findings.
"Our hearts really go out to this victim's parents. But could it have been prevented?" Harris asked.
Hofstra said counseling services are available for students and that the school has set up a call center for parents and students. The number is 516-463-5800.
The Hofstra University area was relatively quiet on the Saturday before commencement.
Jack Greene, 52, from Sandwich, Mass., was with his son, Tim, 22, who is graduating Sunday with bachelor's degree in marketing and has been living off campus in Uniondale in a house with five other male students.
"You do worry. Everything that happens to someone else's child, you think 'that could have happened to mine,' " Jack Greene said. He said, however, that if his son wasn't graduating, but was coming back next semester, he would not change his son's plans -- though he would worry more.
Tim Greene said that it's always appeared that some of the streets where there is off-campus housing are safer than others -- although he has never felt personally unsafe.
With Sarah Armaghan, Ellen Yan and Bill Mason
Dalton Smith- fvck--g Animal. This is why law abiding citizens should have guns.
