The family of accidentally slain Andrea Rebello -- allegedly killed by police bullet on Long Island during a home invasion -- may file a wrongful death lawsuit, report several news outlets today.
Rebello, 21, raised in Tarrytown and a 2010 graduate of Sleepy Hollow High School, was killed on May 17 around 2:30 a.m. when an officer responded to what he thought was a robbery in progress at the off-campus apartment Rebello shared with her twin sister, Jessica, and two other Hofstra University sorority sisters.
Nassau County Police officials have indicated that the responding officer, Nikolas Budimlic, did not know that there was instead a hostage situation going on. When he arrived, the suspect Dalton Smith, 30, of Hempstead, out on parole, allegedly had Rebello in a headlock as he pointed a gun at Budimlic. The officer allegedly fired eight shots, killing both suspect and victim.
According to the Journal News, Nella Rebello, Andrea's mother, "made the disclosure" that she might file a lawsuit later "in a petition to administer her daughter’s estate. The documents, filed May 31 in Westchester County Surrogate’s Court, lists one of Andrea’s assets as the right to file a wrongful death suit against Nassau County, its police officers 'and possibly other defendants to be named after discovery.'"
Rebello was mourned by hundreds of shocked and saddened friends and family at a wake at Tarrytown's Coffey Funeral Home followed by a funeral at St. Teresa of Avila Church on Beekman Avenue, Sleepy Hollow.
Newsday reports that Budimlic has been out on leave since the incident and that the case is under internal police investigation.
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