'The screaming just got worse and worse ... And then we heard five bangs': Harrowing account of neighbors who listened as sorority girl, 21, pleaded for her life as she was brutally murdered in front of her twin
- Andrea Rebello, a junior at Hofstra, was shot dead at 2.30am on Friday
- Masked male intruder, who has not been identified, was also shot dead
- The victim's twin sister was in the home at the time of the shooting
- Police were alerted when another woman in the home was allowed out to get cash from an ATM and immediately called authorities
By Lydia Warren and Hayley Peterson
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Victim: Andrea Rubello, 21, is shown as a senior in her high school yearbook in 2010. She was killed early Friday morning
Neighbors of the Hofstra University sorority girl who was fatally shot during an early morning break-in Friday say they heard blood-curdling screams and what sounded like a woman pleading for her life at the time of the killing.
Victoria Dehel, who lives four doors down from Andrea Rebello, the 21-year-old victim, told the New York Times that she heard shouting around 2 a.m. in their California Avenue neighborhood in Long Island.
At first is sounded like 'a bunch of drunk college students,' she told the Times.
'And then the screaming just got worse and worse and worse. And then we heard thuds, like five bangs,' she said. Dehel said she and her boyfriend stepped onto their porch and they could hear what sounded like a woman pleading for her life, just as police cars raced down the street.
'I turned to my boyfriend and I said, "I think someone just got murdered." It was awful,' she said.
Rebello was at home with three others, including her twin sister, Jessica, when an armed man wearing a ski mask forced his way through the front door at 2:20 a.m. The home is just a block from the campus.
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Victim: Andrea Rebello (right), has been shot dead by a masked intruder during an invasion of the home she shares with her twin sister Jessica (left). The suspect was also shot dead at the scene
Loss: The twins reportedly lived at the home just a block from campus with more of their sorority sisters
Horror: It is unknown at this time whether Rebello's twin sister witnessed the killing, but police confirmed that her sister had remained in the home while another girl was allowed outside
The suspect, who was not a student at the university, headed to the second floor of the home and held the residents hostage, according to reports.
He allowed one of the women to leave the home to withdraw money from an ATM and she called 911, Nassau County Deputy Inspector Kenneth Lack told NBC New York.
She told the 911 dispatcher that the intruder had a silver handgun pointed at her friend's head in a second-floor bedroom, NBC reported. She added that there were multiple hostages.
The dispatcher passed the information to police and less than a minute later, Nassau County police officers reached the home.
When they arrived, shots went off. Lack said it is not clear who fired, but a law enforcement source told the New York Post it appeared the suspect killed Rebello and the police then killed him.
It is unknown at this time whether her twin sister witnessed the killing, but police confirmed that her sister had remained in the home while the other girl was allowed outside.
'We don't know [the suspect's] motive at this time but it appears to be a robbery,' Chief Rick Capece said in a press conference on Friday.
Scene: Officers guard the area leading to the white house, background, where the shooting broke out
Scene: She was home with two other girls and a male when the break in took place around 2.30am
One of the victim's friends told NBC that she was a member of the Beta Sigma Phi sorority and lived with six of her sorority sisters at the home.
Students flocked to Twitter to express their grief at the killing, with many writing 'R.I.P' messages to Andrea and sending her twin sister their best wishes and prayers.
Andrea, a junior at Hofstra studying Public Relations and Sociology, grew up in Westchester, New York, according to her blog.
'I'm 100% Portuguese and have an identical twin sister so I guess that makes me kind of unique?' she wrote in the bio.
Photographs on her Facebook page show the girl as a popular student who enjoyed hanging out with friends and her twin sister, while her blog documents her cooking hobby.
Sisters: Jessica and Andrea Rebello, pictured, remained in the home while another girl was allowed out to collect money from an ATM. The girl called police immediately and they arrived minutes later
Popular: Photographs on Facebook show Andrea, a junior at Hofstra, enjoying nights out with friends
Break in: Police said that the masked, armed intruder knocked on the front door before forcing his way inside the home and holding the friends, including Andrea (left), hostage
Authorities said that the twin sister is now with their family.
Police
added that the unnamed male hostage is from Brooklyn, and the other
female victim who escaped the home is from Connecticut.
Victoria Dehel, who lives four houses
away, said she had heard what sounded like fighting coming from the
home. She ignored it as first, believing it was rowdy students coming
home from a bar.
But then 'this girl was shrieking,' she said, and loud bangs followed just seconds later.
'It didn’t sound good at all,' Dehel said. 'I turned to my boyfriend and
I said, "I think someone just got murdered." It was awful.'
Neighbors told CBS New York that they heard cries for help from the home.
Distraught: Hofstra University students gather near the house where the girl and an armed intruder were killed
Sadness: The suspect and the girl were both shot after police arrived at the Long Island home
'I
came home last night ten minutes before it happened and I heard
screams,' one woman said. 'I ran outside and police officers were like,
"go back inside your house, go back inside your house".'
On Friday morning, Hofstra University President Stuart Rabinowitz released a statement condemning the shooting as a 'senseless act of violence'.
'The Nassau County Police have notified us that early this morning a Hofstra student was killed during a tragic crime which took place in a rental house off campus,' the statement read.
'The police investigation is ongoing, and we do not yet know all of the relevant details. What we do know is that a young member of the Hofstra family has been taken from us in a senseless act of violence.'
Home: The victim lived at the home which is just a block from the university campus with sorority sisters
Campus: The private university, on Long Island in New York, has nearly 13,000 students
Friday is the last day of exams for students at the university and graduation is being held on Sunday, but Rabinowitz added that the ceremonies would go ahead as scheduled.
'The accomplishments of our graduates
must be recognized, and together our community will heal and find the
strength to move forward,' he said.
Hofstra University is a private college on Long Island, New York. Nearly 13,000 students attend the university, which is about 25 miles east of New York City.
- For more of the NBC News report on the shooting click here
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