Police said Hofstra University student Andrea Rebello, and an armed suspect were fatally shot during a break-in at a Long Island home, Fox News reported. Nassau County Deputy Inspector Kenneth Lack said a man with a ski mask forced his way in the house at 213 California Avenue in Uniondale, in Long Island. Her twin sister, Jessica, was in the house at the time, cops said.
The gunman released the third woman so she could get cash from an ATM, the source said. That is when she called the cops, New York Post reported. A firefight erupted when police arrived at the home, and Rebello, 21, and the gunman were killed. Details are still murky, but a law enforcement source told The New York Post that the gunman killed Rebello and the cops killed the gunman.
"We are doing a forensic analysis at the time. We are going to get to the bottom of what happened," said Nassau County Chief of Detectives Rick Capece, who said a gun was recovered at the home.
Rebello was a public relations major at Hofstra, and was originally from Westchester. She blogged about recipes for holiday desserts."I'm 100% Portuguese and have an identical twin sister so I guess that makes me kind of unique?" she wrote on her blog's bio.
"We just heard a girl screaming. It sounded like someone was being murdered," said neighbor Victoria Dehel. "She was screaming 'No! No! No!' over and over again." Dehel, a student at SUNY Westbury, said she heard four or five shots after cops swarmed the home.
"It was like a movie -- it was 100% like a horror movie...Where is the protection?"
Rebello's home, located about half a block from Hofstra, is also near an elementary school. Cops closed the elementary school on Friday because of the ongoing investigation.
The university texted students today saying "Hofstra University Public Safety has been notified of a home invasion and shooting off campus on California Avenue. Further details will follow in an email."
