College Student Shot, Killed by Officer During Scuffle with Intruder

Officer fired eight shots while she was strugging with masked man

MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — Authorities say a police officer's bullet killed a New York college student during the response to a home invasion at an off-campus home.

Nassau County homicide squad Lt. John Azzata said Saturday night that Andrea Rebello was killed by a police officer as she was being held in a headlock by a masked intruder.

Azzata says the police officer opened fire as Dalton Smith made a motion to fire at the officers early Saturday morning.

(Hat tip to Charles WT)

Comments

[Lyle]

Idiots! Bad, bad training too.

[ron650]

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[neoteny]

Collateral damage.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Guns don't kill people, law enforcement panic fire does.

[#HOLO YOLO]

law enforcement panic fire abrupt firearm discharge does

[darius404]

Reading the upvoted apologist comments at the article pisses me off.

[dinkster]

I had to stop when the cop on the thread said 7 out of 8 isn't bad.

[VoluntaryBeatdown]

Damn. And here is why I don't want to entrust my safety to the state.

[Jerryskids]

Something I don't understand - doesn't New York have some pretty strict gun control laws? How did the robber manage to have a gun? Was he some kind of foreigner that didn't know it was illegal for him to have a gun?

[dinkster]

Serial number was ground off.

[Jerryskids]

I missed this story.

Videotape of: Somebody calls cops because the neighbors are fighting, cops show up, couple say they were just arguing and that everthing is fine, cops demand to come in and check things out, both of the couple insist cops can't come in without a warrant, cops kick the door in and taser the couple, commenters on the story (possibly Dunphy) insist that the neighbors phone call constitutes exigent circumstances allowing warrantless entry and that if the couple had just done what they were told to do by the nice policemen none of this would have happened and really, if the choice is between protecting even one potential victim of domestic violence and adhering to the 4th Amendment, well that's an easy call to make.

[JeremyR]

Apparently he fired at least 8 shots, 7 of which hit the suspect, 1 the victim.

While the cop was in a hard place, that seems a bit excessive to fire 8 shots. I think perhaps if the police went back to using revolvers, they would have to not "spray and pray", but aim their shots. A .45 or .357 also probably would have dropped the suspect in one shot.

[Jerryskids]

The cop was in a hard place because he put himself in a hard place. In a hostage situation, you don't send two cops in to directly confront the guy. This is one of those situations where SWAT is legitimately called for. What dispatch message got SF'ed or what kind of cowboy did they have here that the cop would walk straight into the situation?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Stories like this should always remind why we shouldn't go overboard with hero worship. I don't get all that - it's their effen jobs to do what they do. I'm always more impressed when free citizens act heroic because it shows you don't need a 'badge' to be a hero. I'm sure there are plenty of cowardly and corrupt cops.

Had a person killed that guy trying to save the girl they'd been in cuffs. But a cop acts like a dolt and is likely to get a tap on the wrist. Nonsense.

Firing eight bullets, eh, to get one guy? Was he screaming, "America: Fuck yeah!?"

[Incredulous]

All the monday morning quarterbacking here is quite ridiculous. The intruder reportedly had a gun and the girl in a headlock, threatened to shoot the girl and then pointed the gun at officers. Any reasonable person would conclude that shooting him was an appropriate action. How many shots were necessary? How are we supposed to know? It's impossible to determine without more investigation or first-hand knowledge. What if the intruder started moving "menacingly" again after being shot a couple times. Maybe they didn't hit him with the first few shots since they were trying to miss the girl. Who knows?

It's best to wait for all the information to come in before rendering judgement. Even then, this may be a case where we'll never know if the girl's death was that avoidable. For now, I respect the officer's efforts in killing the gunman and I'm sympathetic to him. Imagine the emotional trauma he may have over accidentally killing the girl while trying to save her. Innocent until proven guilty applies to all. Especially in cases like this.

[Incredulous]

All the monday morning quarterbacking here is quite ridiculous. The intruder reportedly had a gun and the girl in a headlock, threatened to shoot the girl and then pointed the gun at officers. Any reasonable person would conclude that shooting him was an appropriate action. How many shots were necessary? How are we supposed to know? It's impossible to determine without more investigation or first-hand knowledge. What if the intruder started moving "menacingly" again after being shot a couple times. Maybe they didn't hit him with the first few shots since they were trying to miss the girl. Who knows?

It's best to wait for all the information to come in before rendering judgement. Even then, this may be a case where we'll never know if the girl's death was that avoidable. For now, I respect the officer's efforts in killing the gunman and I'm sympathetic to him. Imagine the emotional trauma he may have over accidentally killing the girl while trying to save her. Innocent until proven guilty applies to all. Especially in cases like this.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Any reasonable person would conclude that shooting him was an appropriate action.

If the cop had stuck to that, there wouldn't be an issue here, would there?

[Hawk Spitui]

I have a feeling I know who won't be getting blamed for this - the gun-wielding perp who instigated the incident.