Officer Nikolas Budimlic, the Nassau County Long Island man who fatally shot Andrea Rebello, a 21-year-old Hofstra student during a home invasion "blames himself and keeps replaying it in his mind," a police source said after the standoff on Friday, as reported by the New York Post.
The intruder, whom authorities identified as Dalton Smith, 30, of Hempstead, was struck seven times reportedly by Budimlic and died. During the standoff with police, Smith held Rebello in a headlock, using her as a human shield and one shot hit her in the head, and she died.
Smith invaded the home Rebello shared with her twin sister and two others during the predawn hours on Friday. At some point, a female roommate of the twins was able to leave the home and call police, a police spokesman told CNN on Friday.
When a police officer arrived, Smith told the officer he was going to kill Rebello. He turned the handgun toward the officer, she said.
At the time of the shooting, Smith was wanted for jumping parole, police said. He was on parole for first-degree robbery and had an "extensive" arrest history that includes robbery, assault, and promoting prison contraband, police in Nassau County said.
The Rebello family "is in severe shock over this. This has been the worst," Andrea's godfather Henry Santos said. "When we found out that [she was killed by an officer] it was a real second shock... like it happened again."
Budimlic and another officer were the first to respond to the early-morning 911 call after Smith broke into the Budimlic home. Authorities said felon Smith broken in their Uniondale home and brandished a gun at the group. Smith allowed one of the friends, Shannon Thomas, to leave the house, supposed to go to an ATM to get him money. That was when Thomas called 911, instead, telling cops that Smith was putting a gun to their friends' heads.
When two cops arrived at the house, Jessica was escaping through the front door, screaming that Smith had a gun.
On Saturday, Hofstra students had their graduating commencement ceremony wearing white ribbins in memory of Rebello.
"A young member of the Hofstra family has been taken from us in a senseless act of violence," Hofstra President Stuart Rabinowitz said in a statement.
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