'I just heard POP POP': Survivor tells of how he and sorority twins tried to give felon who took them hostage TVs, computers and jewelry before he saw Andrea Rebello, 21, shot dead



Andrea Rebello, a junior at Hofstra, was shot dead at 2.20am on Friday in her Uniondale sorority house



A masked male intruder, today named as Dalton Smith, was also shot dead



The victim's twin, Jessica, was also held hostage along with her boyfriend



Police were alerted when their friend Shannon Thomas was allowed out to get cash from an ATM and immediately called the authorities

Police accidentally killed Robello after Smith grabbed her and used her as a human shield



Smith had three previous convictions for robbery and one for assault, there was a warrant out for his arrest after he absconded parole in April



The survivor of a horrific hostage situation at an off-campus Hofstra University house told of how he and and sorority twins Andrea and Jessica Rebello tried tried to appease their captor by giving him their TVs, computers and jewelry.

John Kourtessis revealed on Saturday that he heard the 'POP POP' of police gunshots that accidentally killed 21-year-old Andrea as she was used for a human shield by convicted felon Dalton Smith.



Smith, who was wanted for a parole violation at the time he took the students hostage, had grabbed the diminutive college student in a headlock and declared 'I can't go back to jail!' when Nassau County police officers entered the house.



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Deadly ending: Police say Dalton Smith, 30, held 21-year-old Andrea Rebello, right, and her twin sister at gunpoint before Smith and Rebello were killed by police



Tragic: Andrea's boyfriend, Brad Wilson, parted ways with her after partying at a bar near the Hofstra University campus on Thursday night. He never got to say goodbye to his sweetheart before she was killed

Horrific: John Kourtessis, who is dating Jessica Rebello - the surviving twin sister - recalled how he tried to keep the gunman calm throughout the ordeal

Mr Kourtessis - who is Jessica's boyfriend - told the New York Post that he and the Rebello twins and their friend Shannon Thomas desperately tried to appease Smith after he burst into their house near the campus of Hofstra University on Long Island, New York.



None of it, though was enough, for Smith - who had an extensive criminal history dating back 15 years.



Andrea's boyfriend, 22-year-old Brad Wilson, told the Post that he is anguished he wasn't there when his girlfriend was taken hostage. Mr Wilson has been partying with the twins, Miss Thomas, and Mr Kourtessis at the popular student bar McHeeb's on Thursday night to celebrate the end of the school year.



But Andrea wasn't having a good night and Mr Wilson parted ways with the group after they left the bar about 2am, he said. He and Andrea were separated abruptly.



'We never got a chance to say goodbye,' Mr Wilson said.

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

The Rebello twins, Mr Kourtessis and Miss Thomas went home after a trip to 7-11.



They were settling in when suddenly, a ski-mask clad man burst into the house and pointed a gun at the horrified students.



'Somebody in this house f***** up and owes this Russian guy $10,000,' Smith, 30, demanded.



None of the students knew anything about the 'Russian guy' that Smith was talking about - but they knew the gun he was wielding meant business.



The Post reports that Smith followed the home to the girls' California Avenue sorority house. He targeted them after seeing them spending large amounts of money in the drinking spot.



Around 2.20am he allegedly peered through the window in his ski mask and knocked on the door before forcing himself in and taking the group hostage.

Raiding the home he shouted: 'I saw you at the bar drinking. I know you have more money than this!', according to police sources quoted in the Post report.



Mr Kourtessis said he tried to calm everyone down, believing that if they gave Smith what he wanted, he would leave.

Escaped: Shannon Thomas, right, was close friends with Andrea Rebello and was at the house on Friday night when they were robbed. She escaped and called police

'He was saying . . . that he just needed us to cooperate. I said, "Listen, we have all this money here."'

The students handed over their computers, their TVs, their jewelry.



Mr Kourtessis said he tried to show Smith that they were doing what he asked, explaining, 'This is worth $3,000, this is worth $1,500, we’re almost there.'

But it wasn't enough for the greedy Smith. The Rebello twins and Miss Thomas were sobbing. Mr Kourtessis said he was doing his best to protect the women by keeping them - and especially Smith - calm.



They moved to the upstairs of the home to go through the twins' jewelry box.



When Miss Thomas, a high school friend, said she could give him $700 cash, if she could go to an ATM, he let her out of the house.



As soon as she left, she called the police.



Nassau County police officers arrived and knocked on the door. Thinking that Miss Thomas has returned, Jessica answered the door. When she saw police - she ran to safety.

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

However, Mr Kourtessis and Andrea were still upstairs with Smith - who was now panicking that officers were in the house.



'I can’t go back to jail! One of you, get over here,' Smith said.



He grabbed Andrea in a headlock and forced Mr Kourtessis to crawl with him down the stairs in an effort to evade the officers inside.



'I see an officer there, with his gun out, standing by the steps. So I’m thinking, "Good, there’s a cop there,"' he told the Post.

At that point, he escaped, running and hiding behind a couch.



Police spotted Smith and trained their guns on him.

'Put the gun down and let her go,' officers shouted.

Smith replied, 'I'm going to kill her.'

'I hear POP POP, two shots,' he said.



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 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

'I run out and I run toward where they are.'



He then saw officers fire twice more at Smith.



He screamed for Andrea. She did not answer.

Nassau police said she was shot in the head. Officers fired eight times at Smith.



He was hit by seven bullets and died at the scene. The eighth struck Andrea Rebello.



Nassau County Police Commissioner Thomas Dale said he had traveled to Rebello's Tarrytown, New York, home to explain to Rebello's parents what happened.

The shooting came just days before the school's commencement ceremonies, which are scheduled to take place Sunday.

A university spokeswoman said Saturday students will be handed white ribbons to wear in memory of Rebello.

Smith, 30, of Hempstead, had a warrant put out for his arrest on April 25.

He had been found guilty of robbery in the 1st degree and had an extensive criminal background going back to 1999 with multiple convictions for theft and assault.

He also spent time in prison and was convicted again for handling contraband goods while behind bars.

Two of a kind: Jessica is back home with her family in Weschester County, morning the loss of her sister Andrea

Victoria Dehel, who lives four doors down told the New York Times that she heard shouting.

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.

'[Police] drew their weapons and went inside,' neighbor Frank Pugliese, 19 told the Post.



'She was pleading for her life. You could tell she was scared. It was a surreal moment... She was pleading — her voice was trembling and she yelled, "No, no!"'



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 Thomas told the 911 dispatcher that he had a silver handgun pointed at her friend's head in a bedroom, NBC reported.

The dispatcher passed the information to police and less than a minute later, Nassau County police officers reached the home.

Anthony Kourtessiss said his son was being questioned by police last night and Jessica was 'inconsolable'. 'It’s a terrible situation,' he told the newspaper. '[Jessica] was very upset, inconsolable right now.' Distraught: Hofstra University students gather near the house where the girl and an armed intruder were killed Rebello was a member of the Beta Sigma Phi sorority and lived with six of her sorority sisters at the home, including her sister. 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.

A private vigil was held at the Hofstra Student Center last night and it was announced today that her funeral will take place on Wednesday.

Rebello's father, Fernando, was too distraught to discuss the incident outside the family's home in Tarrytown, New York, yesterday. 'It's my daughter, my baby daughter,' the landscaping company chief told the Journal News outside the home he shares with wife Nella. 'She was so beautiful. I'm so confused. 'I don't know what to do,' he added. Her godmother told the newspaper: 'It's just too tragic'.

Andrea was a junior at Hofstra studying Public Relations and Sociology and had attended Sleepy Hollow High School alongside her sister.

'I'm 100% Portuguese and have an identical twin sister so I guess that makes me kind of unique?' she wrote on her blog. Principal Carol Conklin-Spillane said the girls were 'a set' and Andrea was devoted to her family who are close to other members of the Portuguese community in the area. 'She had a devotion to family and sense of purpose and of opportunity,' she said. Sadness: The suspect and the girl were both shot after police arrived at the Long Island home

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.

Neighbors said their house had a vegetable garden and the twins would sometimes drop off the produce.

'They brought me some vegetables from their garden. They’re very nice people. They’d do anything for you,' Harris Bank told the New York Post .

Her funeral will be held at St. Teresa of Avila Church in Sleepy Hollow and will be officiated by the Rev. Osvaldo Franklin, of Our Lady of Fatima in Yonkers, who gave the twins their first communion.



He said they helped with Mass for several years after that.

Authorities said Andrea's twin sister is now with their family.

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.

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

'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.'

Friday was 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.





