LOWELL, Mass. (AP) – Police said the shooting of a 19-year-old college student at his family’s home early Christmas morning was a justified case of self-defense.

Andrew Clancy, a sophomore at Trinity College in Connecticut, was shot and killed by a police officer called to his home by his father. Police say Clancy was approaching the officer with a knife and hatchet in hand when the officer fired two shots.

“The officer really had no option,” said Deputy Superintendent Kenneth Lavallee. “All indications are that the officer acted completely within his rights and obligations as a police officer to defend himself.”

Mass. alone in losing residents

BOSTON (AP) – Massachusetts was the only state in the nation to lose residents in 2004, U.S. Census data shows.

The state lost an estimated 3,852 people, or about 1.1 percent, in the last year, despite continuing growth in immigration to the Bay State, the Boston Sunday Globe reported.

Paul E. Harrington, an economist at Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies, attributed the fall to a stagnant job market. He said the decline could be an ominous sign for the state.

“Population loss is a pretty fundamental number,” he said.

Offsetting the trend is a boost in foreign immigrants, Harrington said, who are counted by the Census but often don’t show up in job or unemployment data.

District considers bus seat belts

EXETER N.H. (AP) -The local School Administrative Unit is considering seat belts on school buses, which, if adopted, would be a first among the state’s public schools.

The regional school board, which represents Exeter and five other area towns, plans to investigate the cost after several parents pushed for the addition of seat belts.

Once the cost is determined, the board expects to put the issue before the voters.

More than 200 school districts nationally provide seat belts on buses. The states of New York, New Jersey, Florida, California, Minnesota and Louisiana have made it law.