A police officer who fatally shot a Hofstra University junior and her hostage-taker during a standoff inside an off-campus house had no option but deadly force, a prosecutor said Wednesday following an 11-month investigation, according to CNN.
"Though the results were unquestionably tragic, criminal charges under these circumstances would be inappropriate and legally unsustainable," Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said at the conclusion of a 28-page report into the May 2013 shooting, CNN reported.
The 28-page investigative report, which includes interviews with police officers and civilian witnesses, as well as forensic evidence, was ordered by Rice after Budimlic opened fire and killed both the armed home intruder and the student in May, according to CNN.
The report did not state whether the suspects weapon was even operable, and may have been broken before he fell on top of it after being shot by the officer, the report said, CNN reported.
The prosecutor concluded that the death of 21-year-old Andrea Rebello of Tarrytown, N.Y., was caused by gunman Dalton Smith's decisions to break into a Hempstead residence armed with a gun, taking several residents hostage and then refusing to surrender when police arrived, according to CNN.
Rice's report for the first time publicly identifies the police officer involved in the shooting as Nikolas Budimlic, an eight-year veteran of the Nassau Police Department who had previously spent 12 years as a New York City police officer, CNN reported.
The suspect maneuvered down a flight of stairs and was attempting to leave with the young woman through a rear door as he threatening to shoot the student, CNN reported.
Budimlic was among the first officers to respond to a report of an early morning robbery at a house near the Hofstra campus, according to CNN.
