The bullet that killed a beautiful Hofstra University student — who was held hostage by an armed gunman — was fired by a Nassau County cop, authorities said Saturday night.

Authorities revealed the tragic twist hours after a hulking ex-con — who jumped parole three weeks ago — was identified as the ski-mask-wearing assailant.

An April 25 warrant was issued for Dalton Smith, 30, who was paroled Feb. 4 after serving nearly nine years for attempted robbery and weapons possession, according to state correction records.

Smith, who did a prior state prison stretch from 2000-’03, had “an extensive criminal history” including previous arrests for robbery, assault and dealing contraband behind bars, authorities said.

Andrea Rebello, 21, was shot dead at an off-campus home in Uniondale, L.I., where she lived with her twin sister, Jessica, and her sorority sisters.

Earlier Saturday, a Nassau County police spokesman said investigators were still trying to piece together the chaotic events that led to the deaths of Rebello and Smith.

But four detectives, in dark suits and ties, arrived at the Rebellos’ Westchester County home late Saturday afternoon.

The grim quartet arrived in a black SUV, and walked to the front door in single file. They left without speaking about 25 minutes later.
Nassau County Police Department released a photo of suspect Dalton Smith wanted in relation to the fatal Hofstra shooting of Andrea Rebello.

The Hofstra junior and her identical twin were among four students inside the two-story house at 213 California Ave. when Smith forced his way inside around 2:30 a.m. Friday.

He was killed in the gunfire after police stormed the home, and his silver handgun was recovered at the scene — although police aren’t saying if the weapon was fired.

Cops said the wanted man was identified through his fingerprints. But they wouldn’t even confirm if he was killed by police bullets.

Surviving sister Jessica Rebello, who escaped the gunplay without injury, remained silent Saturday inside her family’s Tarrytown, N.Y., home.

A funeral for Andrea was set for Wednesday in nearby Sleepy Hollow, where the inseparable twins had attended high school. The Mass at St. Teresa of Avila Church will be recited in Portuguese.

The Rebello family has yet to comment on the tragedy or the ongoing investigation into the shooting. “We would really appreciate you not calling,” said a woman reached at the Rebello household. “There is nobody here to say anything at the moment. We would appreciate if you respect our privacy at the moment.”

Devastated friends and family members came in and out of the tidy brick-and-shingle home with its manicured front lawn and potted flowers on the front steps.

When Dorian Joyner Jr.’s dad told him that he would soon be joining him at Morehouse College, the freshman thought it meant that his father would be coming for a visit.

In actuality, his father meant that he would soon be joining him as a student at the Atlanta campus, he told WXIA-TV.

The younger Joyner and his father, Dorian Joyner Sr., will both be graduating from Morehouse College this Sunday after spending three years together on campus. President Barack Obama will be speaking at the ceremony.

While the elder Joyner initially attended the school from 1984 through 1988, he dropped out early to build his career, according to a profile on the Morehouse website. Years later, after his oldest son had began attending Morehouse, he decided he wanted to re-enroll and complete his degree.

While his son was initially shocked by his dad’s decision, he said he liked having him around on campus.

"We used to have a support system. Sometimes he would come to my room to ask about a problem or a class or a professor to take," the younger Joyner told WXIA-TV.

In fact, the younger Joyner, an English major, said being on campus with his father, a religion major who plans to attend law school, was actually “natural."

“We rarely see each other, because we have class and we have our own lifestyles. He have a job; I have a job; he have a social life, and I have a social life,” he said in a Morehouse video. “But when we on campus, we see each other as students and also as father and son.”

The duo isn't the only family to graduate together.

Earlier this month, father and mother Jeff and Christina Crise, and son and daughter Josh and Amada Crise, all graduated from Des Moines Area Community College, according to local Iowa outlet KCCI News.

City Councilwoman Inez Dickens — a top contender to be the next City Council speaker — is so far in arrears on property taxes that the city plans to sell the debt to a collector, the Daily News has learned.

She owns 50 percent of two Harlem apartment buildings that have amassed $48,375 in unpaid taxes, fees and interest, city records show.

The Department of Finance is scheduled to auction off tax liens on the two properties — at 2153 and 2155 Seventh Ave. — on Friday. The buyers of the liens will have the right to collect the debts.

The Harlem Democrat inherited her ownership in the buildings from her father, the late City Councilman Lloyd Dickens. She is listed as the emergency contact for them on registration forms filed with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

But her spokesman insisted Dickens was not involved in management of the properties.

“The Council member is not engaged in any way with the real estate side,” spokesman Simeon Banister told The News. “Her family actually manages that .... She doesn’t draw a salary from the real estate business.”

Councilwoman Inez Dickens is said to be a deadbeat landlord and property owner because she owes more than $48,000 in taxes on two buildings slated to be auctioned. One of them is located at 2155 Seventh Ave. in Harlem.

A message left at one of her family’s real estate companies was not immediately returned Thursday.

This is not the first time Dickens has been a deadbeat.

The News revealed two years ago that Dickens and family members owed back taxes on four properties in Harlem, including one of the buildings in arrears today. The day The News inquired about that debt, which totaled $41,277, Dickens paid it off.

When The News confronted her about the payments, she said, “My constituents don’t care about this issue!” and stormed away.

City records show that one of the buildings now in arrears, at 2155 Seventh Ave., has 21 unresolved building code violations, including missing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and defective power outlets.

Last year, the city paid $521.06 to make emergency repairs at the site. That bill is part of the unpaid debt Dickens and her co-owners face.

The owners also owe $52,000 in back water and sewer charges on the two buildings, but have negotiated a 10-year payment plan with the Department of Environmental Protection, a spokesman said.

Chad Johnson whose NFL career came to an end when he was cut by the Dolphins following a domestic violence incident, is once again in trouble in connection with the same incident.

A judge has issued a warrant for Johnson’s arrest because he violated his probation by failing to report to his probation officer, a spokesman for the Broward State Attorney’s Office told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

On August 11, Johnson’s then-wife, Evelyn Lozada, said he head-butted her during an argument. The domestic violence charge led the Dolphins to cut him, as documented on Hard Knocks, and that effectively ended Johnson’s career, as no other team considered Johnson worth the trouble.

Johnson eventually pleaded no contest and was placed on probation. He and Lozada divorced in September after 11 weeks of marriage.

According to comments he posted on Twitter, Johnson is currently in Pasadena.

A drunken Florida woman stabbed her boyfriend with an 8-inch blade after he farted in her face during an argument, police say.

Deborah Ann Burns, 37, allegedly knifed her lover of six years — Willie Butler, 53 — as they watched television in their Immokalee apartment last week.

Burns told cops they were fighting about cash when Butler got up to go to the kitchen and broke wind on her head.

She confronted him and things turned ugly — with Butler allegedly throwing a knife at her, which missed.

Burns reportedly picked it up and threw it back and hit him in the stomach.

She ran outside, before returning to hit him with a stick on his left arm.

Cops arrived to find a bleeding Butler, who was so drunk he could not give a statement, standing in front of his mailbox.

Burns, who denies cutting Butler, was arrested and charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, reports 14News.

She remains in custody on a $50,000 bond.

Kansas City high school student is making history.

Hailey Cherokee Jordan, 16, is a Senior at Archbishop O'Hara High School.

With her 5.1 GPA, she becomes the school's first black valedictorian. She's also the school's youngest graduating senior.

"Don't let anyone tell you that you can't do something because that will only put you down." Jordan said. "Just make sure that motivates you to do better to prove them wrong."

Jordan has been a straight A student throughout her school career.

She plans on going to Stanford University with a full scholarship. She plans to double-major in biochemistry and spanish.

An Illinois man is charged with soliciting prostitution, after authorities say he left his new bride at an Omni Hotel in Florida, to meet up with a hooker he found online, who turned out to be an undercover detective. Muhammed Ahmed was arrested along with dozens of others in an undercover prostitution sting by the Polk County Sheriff's Office. Deputies say Admed was on his honeymoon at the time of his arrest. Gillian Pensavalle has more.

The Florida teenager who was arrested two weeks ago for causing a small explosion on the campus of her high school will not be charged with a crime. Kiera Wilmot, 16, was arrested by police in Bartow, Florida, after conducting an unauthorized science experiment which lightly damaged an eight ounce plastic water bottle.

At the time, Wilmot faced possible charges for “possessing or discharging weapons or firearms at a school sponsored event or on school property.” If she had been convicted, she could have faced up to five years in prison.

Wilmot’s arrest became a national story, as members of the press and the scientific community insisted that Wilmot was the victim of a massive overreaction from law enforcement. A crowdfunded legal defense fund netted over $8,000 to cover Wilmot’s potential legal fees, and a Change.org petition to get the charges dropped received nearly 200,000 signatures.

“Even though I don’t have the privilege of knowing Kiera, I believe we all have the responsibility to stand up with one another whenever there is injustice and felt I had to do whatever I could to make sure the unjust felony charges were dropped,” said Maggie Gilman, the creator of the petition, in a statement circulated by Change.org. “I’m very thankful to the 195,000 people who stood with Kiera and signed the petition on Change.org!”

Wilmot has already served a ten-day suspension, and is now attending another high school, according to her attorney.

A couple filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the state of South Carolina for what they say was an unnecessary sexual assignment surgery performed on a toddler they later adopted.

Lawyers for Pam and Mark Crawford said Tuesday they were suing the Department of Social Services for having irreversible surgery performed on a 16-month-old child they eventually adopted and raised as a girl.

The child was born in 2004 with both male and female genitalia and placed in state custody after the termination of parental rights, according court papers. At the age of 16 months, doctors removed the child's male genitalia, leaving the toddler with female parts, according to court papers.

"The doctors knew that sex assignment surgeries on infants ... poses a significant risk of imposing a gender that is ultimately rejected by the patient," attorneys claim in the suit.

Instead, the lawyers argue, the optional surgery should have been delayed until the child was older and self-identified as male or female.

"That was a permanent, irreversible decision that was not theirs to make," attorney Ken Suggs said Tuesday of the lawsuits, which he said are the first of their kind in the United States.

At the time of adoption, the Crawfords said they knew their child was born with ambiguous genitalia and raised the child as a girl starting in 2006. But about a year ago, the Crawfords say their now-8-year-old child told them he wanted to be raised as a boy. They supported the decision, allowing him to cut his hair short and wear boys' clothes.

The Crawfords said their family is adjusting, their son is happy and has the support of his community and school. But they chose to sue to keep other families from going through similar struggles.

The state lawsuit accuses the Medical University of South Carolina — where the surgery was performed — and Greenville Hospital — where the child was born — of negligence medical malpractice for not getting the patient's informed consent before surgery and failing to warn of potential problems resulting from it.

A spokeswoman for the Greenville Hospital System did not immediately comment on the suit. The Medical University of South Carolina and the Department of Social Services declined to comment.

The child is healthy, but the Crawfords' lawyers say there are medical issues that can result from the surgery, including sterilization or the loss of sexual function.

"These doctors wanted to play God," said Alesdair Ittelson, an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center, which helped bring the lawsuit. About one in every 2,000 children is born "intersex," or with ambiguous genitalia, according to Anne Tamar-Mattis, an attorney with Advocates for Informed Choice, a group that supports intersex children.

New Orleans police and federal authorities were searching early Tuesday for a young man who is suspected of opening fire at a Mother's Day parade in New Orleans, wounding 19.

Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas identified the suspect late Monday as Akein Scott, 19, of New Orleans. Referring to blurry surveillance camera images of the mass shooting, Serpas said police have "multiple identifications of Akein Scott as the shooter" seen in the film.

Serpas said officers would be searching all night and into Tuesday for Scott, whom he called "no stranger to the criminal justice system." He urged the teen, who has previous arrests on firearms and drug charges, to give himself up.

"We would like to remind the community and Akein Scott that the time has come for him to turn himself in," Serpas said at a news conference outside police headquarters.

A photo of Scott hung from a podium in front of the police chief. "We know more about you than you think we know," he said.

Serpas said it was too early to say whether he was the only shooter.

The mass shooting showed again how far the city has to go to shake a persistent culture of violence that belies the city's festive image. Earlier, police announced a $10,000 reward and released the surveillance camera images, which led to several tips from the community.

"The people today chose to be on the side of the young innocent children who were shot and not on the side of a coward who shot into the crowd," Serpas said.

The superintendent said SWAT team members and U.S. marshals served a searched warrant at one location looking for Scott, but didn't locate him.

Angry residents said gun violence — which has flared at two other city celebrations this year — goes hand-in-hand with the city's other deeply rooted problems such as poverty and urban blight. The investigators tasked with solving Sunday's shooting work within an agency that's had its own troubles rebounding from years of corruption while trying to halt violent crime.

"The old people are scared to walk the streets. The children can't even play outside," Ronald Lewis, 61, said Monday as he sat on the front stoop of his house, about a half-block from the shooting site. His window sill has a hole from a bullet that hit it last year. Across the street sits a house marked by bullets he said were fired two weeks ago.

"The youngsters are doing all this," said Jones, who was away from home when the latest shooting broke out.

Video released early Monday shows a crowd gathered for a parade suddenly scattering in all directions, with some falling to the ground. They appear to be running from a man in a white T-shirt and dark pants who turns and runs out of the picture. Two children were among those wounded.

Police were working to determine whether there was more than one gunman, though they initially said three people were spotted fleeing from the scene. Whoever was responsible escaped despite the presence of officers who were interspersed through the crowd as part of routine precautions for such an event.

A police news release says Scott has previously been arrested for illegal carrying of a weapon, illegal possession of a stolen firearm, resisting an officer, contraband to jail, illegal carrying of a weapon while in possession of a controlled dangerous substance and possession of heroin.

It was not immediately clear whether Scott, who was arrested this past March, had been convicted on any of those charges.

Serpas said ballistic evidence gathered at the scene was giving them "very good leads to work on."

Witness Jarrat Pytell said he was walking with friends near the parade route when the crowd suddenly began to break up.

"I saw the guy on the corner, his arm extended, firing into the crowd," said Pytell, a medical student.

"He was obviously pointing in a specific direction; he wasn't swinging the gun wildly," Pytell said.

Pytell said he tended to one woman with a severe arm fracture — he wasn't sure if it was from a bullet or a fall — and to others including an apparent shooting victim who was bleeding badly.

Three gunshot victims remained in critical condition Monday, though their wounds didn't appear to be life-threatening. Most of the wounded had been released from the hospital.

It's not the first time gunfire has shattered a festive mood in the city this year. Five people were wounded in a drive-by shooting in January after a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade, and four were wounded in a shooting after an argument in the French Quarter in the days leading up to Mardi Gras. Two teens were arrested in connection with the MLK Day shootings; three men were arrested and charged in the Mardi Gras shootings.

The shootings are bloody reminders of the persistence of violence in the city, despite some recent progress.

Last week, law enforcement officials touted the indictment of 15 people in gang-related crimes, including the death of a 5-year-old girl killed by stray gunfire at a birthday party a year ago.

The city's 193 homicides in 2012 are seven fewer than the previous year, while the first three months of 2013 represented an even slower pace of killing.

On Monday night, 100 to 150 people gathered for a unity rally and peace vigil in the wake of Sunday's shootings. Some residents stood in their doorways or on their steps. At one point, trumpeter Kenneth Terry played, "O For a Closer Walk With Thee."

Robin Bevins, president of the ladies group of the Original Four Social Aid and Pleasure Club, said she and members of her organization came to the rally to show solidarity.

"This code of silence has to end," said Bevins, who's also a member of the city's Social Aid Task Force. "If we stand up and speak out, maybe this kind of thing will stop."

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu walked into the area, greeting people, shaking hands and stopping to talk with some residents before addressing the crowd.

"We came back out here as a community to stand on what we call sacred ground," Landrieu said. "We came here to reclaim this spot. This shooting doesn't reflect who we are as a community or what we're about."

Leading efforts to lower the homicide rate is a police force that's faced its own internal problems and staffing issues. At about 1,200 members, the department is 300 short of its peak level.

Serpas, who has been chief since 2010, has been working to overcome the effects of decades of scandal and community mistrust arising from what the U.S. Justice Department says has been questionable use of force and biased policing.

The site of the Sunday shooting — about 1.5 miles from the heart of the French Quarter — showcases other problems facing the city. Stubborn poverty and blight are evident in the area of middle-class and low-income homes. Like other areas hit hard by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the area has been slower to repopulate than wealthier areas. And Landrieu's stepped-up efforts to demolish or renovate blighted properties — a pre-Katrina problem made worse by the storm — remain too slow for some.

Frank Jones, 71, whose house is a few doors down from the shooting site, said the house across from him has been abandoned since Katrina. Squatters and drug dealers sometimes take shelter there, he said.

A city code inspector, who declined to be interviewed, was there Monday.

"It's too late," Jones said. "Should have fixed it from the very beginning. A lot of people are getting fed up with the system."

A 75-year-old resident of a New Jersey senior citizen housing complex is suspected of running a prostitution ring that employed some elderly residents as sex workers, NBC 4 New York has learned.

The suspect, James Parham, 75, was also accused, along with Cheryl Chaney, 66, of allowing residents and visitors to use crack in their apartments, police said.

Both are charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and maintaining a nuisance, and Chaney is also charged with possession of crack cocaine.

In Parham's case, the nuisance charge relates to allowing prostitution in his apartment and in Chaney's case, it relates to allowing drug use in hers.

Englewood Police Chief Arthur O'Keefe told reporters on Tuesday that Parham ran the prostitution ring through his apartments, and employed a mix of young women and older residents.

None of the alleged prostitutes were arrested.

O'Keefe says there was also sex and drug use going on in common areas of the complex, and that some seniors were afraid to venture into certain areas because they were afraid for their lives.

A lack of security in the building is believed to have contributed to the problem.

Information about attorneys for the suspects was not immediately available.

Cleveland’s Charles Ramsey has gained national attention this past week after his heroic actions in the rescue of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight.

A local artist was so impressed, he made an offer that at least one man couldn’t turn down: a free tattoo of Ramsey’s face.

“He’s kind of like that public figure in Cleveland right now, kind of the voice and face of it,” said Rodney Rose, tattoo artist at 252 Tattoo. “He’s such an expressive guy, I figured it’d make a great tattoo.”

Ramsey’s role in the rescue of the women — he heard Berry screaming and, thinking she was escaping a domestic dispute, kicked open a door for her — has made him a hero to many. His straight-shooting retelling of the story, with its colorful asides and sometimes-profane vernacular, has also captivated the web.

Rose said last week he posted an offer on Facebook that if someone was willing to get a Ramsey tattoo, he would do it for free.

His friend, and fellow tattoo artist, Stephen Munhollon, bit.

“I think Rodney and I were caught up in the ridiculousness of it,” said Munhollon. “You could ask the question, did I want to get Charles Ramsey tattooed on my leg, and the obvious answer is no. The real question is, was I willing to get Charles Ramsey tattooed on my leg, and the answer was yes.”

The tattoo is on the back of his knee cap and took about five hours to ink.

While he jokes about his decision, Munhollon said the tattoo actually has meaning.

“In society, a lot of times people choose not to get involved in situations,” he said. “I think what’s really grabbed people in regards to Mr. Ramsey, is he’s an average, everyday guy. He’s an ordinary person, he was put in an extraordinary situation that he could have walked away from. But he chose to do something.”

Munhollon said he’s gotten stopped several times already about the tattoo, and people have even requested to have their photos taken next to it.

“People even around here loved it because everyone knows who this guy is now,” said Rose. “I wasn’t sure if people would think it was Jimi Hendrix or Bob Marley, but everyone knew right away it was Charles Ramsey.”

Ramsey’s an example that everyday heroes exist, said Munhollon.

“It goes to show there are good people out there from all walks of life, from all corners of the city,” he said.

One minute, a man stands at the outskirts of a packed parade route. The next, he charges toward them.

The scene is part of dramatic surveillance camera images of a shooting that turned a festive New Orleans Mother's Day parade into chaos and renewed concerns about crime in the city.

The images, released by police Monday, show the panicked crowd scrambling for cover. The man runs the other way, leaving scattered bicycles and bodies on the ground behind him.

It's the third holiday this year when guns have been fired into crowds, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said. A January 21 shooting near a Martin Luther King Day parade left five wounded. Four people were hurt in a February Mardi Gras attack, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported.

Sunday's shooting, which injured 19 people, sparked worries that despite the number of witnesses, no one will come forward. After years of corruption, a deep-seated distrust of police lingers among some of the city's residents.

Authorities vowed to catch the shooters.

"There were dozens of people in yesterday's second-line (parade). We know that there's still some of you who know information so please reconsider and let us know," Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said Monday.

A $10,000 reward is being offered in the case.

Serpas said that police are still working to determine if there was more than one gunman, and whether there was more than one weapon on the scene. He said they were making "significant headway."

"I can assure whoever did this, we know a lot more about you than you think we do. And my recommendation to you is to collect yourself, and turn yourself in," Serpas said.

Remi Braden, a police spokeswoman, described the shooting as "an extremely unusual occurrence."

"We're confident that we will make swift arrests," she said, adding that members of the community have provided tips to authorities.

Witnesses were hard to come by Monday across the neighborhood, dotted with houses that have barred or boarded-up windows, overgrown lawns and patchy roads in need of paving.

A ripped T-shirt filled with bullet holes hung from a nearby light post, and a pair of old sneakers dangled from a power line.

Abdul Aziz, 33, told CNN's iReport that he saw a gun's muzzle flash at Sunday's parade but couldn't see who the shooter was.

"I'm sad. I love this city," he said. "We're plagued by crime, and it's just not getting better, no matter what we do."

The shooting took place at one of the city's famed second-line parades about two miles from the heart of the French Quarter. The dancing and brass band processions happen nearly every Sunday, except during the hottest months of summer.

The Original Big 7 Social Aid and Pleasure Club, which organized Sunday's parade, decried what it called a senseless attack.

"Secondlining is about community and celebration, not trauma and violence," the group said in a statement, describing crime and violence as systemic problems in the city.

"We feel embarrassed that the world is now viewing our city and our community through a lens of violence," the statement said. "We support a thorough investigation of the shooting and pray the perpetrators will be brought to justice."

The violence took place as New Orleans undergoes an expensive and sweeping overhaul of its police department ordered last year by the U.S. Department of Justice.

And the shooting comes less than a month after federal prosecutors announced the high-profile indictment of five New Orleans gang members on gun and drug charges. The indictment was the first returned as a result of a new multiagency police unit dedicated to rooting out violent gangs in the city, but authorities vowed that it would not be the last.

Asked whether the parade shooting was gang-related, officials said they were still investigating.

"It's too preliminary to tell," Landrieu said, adding that he expected more information later.

"It's a culture of violence that has enveloped this city for a long period of time ... and it's one of the things that we as a community have got to stop," the mayor said.

The attack included shots that were fired from different guns, police said Sunday, and officers saw three possible gunmen running from the scene.

On Monday, at least three victims were in critical condition, said Louisiana State University Medical Center spokesman Marvin McGraw. One other victim was in stable condition at the hospital, he said. Seven others had been released. Conditions of other victims were unclear.

Federal investigators say they have no indication that the shooting was an act of terrorism.

"It's strictly an act of street violence in New Orleans," New Orleans FBI spokeswoman Mary Beth Romig said Monday.