By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM -- The New York State Police have finished their investigation into the stabbing death of a Chinese graduate student and the fatal shooting of her alleged attacker by a Potsdam police officer.

But a presentation to a grand jury has been delayed by a lack of staff, St. Lawrence County District Attorney Mary Rain said.

Rain said she is reviewing the file on the investigation and still intends to present the case to a grand jury to determine if Patrolman Matthew Seymour’s shooting of Tian Ma, 31, at a townhouse development on Sept. 10, was justified. But that presentation has been delayed by a lack of staff in her office.

“We’re short staffed, as I have consistently told the legislature,” she said.

Ptl. Seymour is back on the job after a review of the evidence by authorities. Rain had said early in the investigation that a grand jury would be convened to fulfill a requirement that officer-involved shootings be investigated by a grand jury before reinstatement of the officer to duty.

Rain said she is having trouble “getting serious cases done in a timely manner” due to a lack of staff in her office.

“I have 40 other serious matters on my desk” where timeliness in proceeding is becoming a concern for her.

“I can’t seem to convince the legislature that we’re short-staffed,” she said.

Vey little has been released by state police, who performed the investigation of the deaths of the two Chinese nationals, both of whom were graduate students at Clarkson University. Not even autopsy reports have been released to the public.

Initial reports within a few days of the deaths said that the Potsdam Police Department received a call at about 2:45 p.m. from a neighbor at Swann Landing property that screaming was heard coming from another unit. When Seymour and Patrolman Clint Perrigo arrived, Tian Ma, a male, was on top of Yahzen Jiang, a female, stabbing her, and refused to stop when ordered.

Seymour, an 11-year veteran of the Potsdam Police Department, a firearms instructor and a certified emergency medical technician, ordered Tian Ma several times to drop the knife, and “when he refused to comply threatening both the officer and (the female), Officer Seymour fired several rounds from his service weapon, incapacitating (the male),” Rain said in a statement at the time.

The investigation has established Tian Ma had returned to the United States from China on Wednesday, Sept. 9, and arrived in Potsdam by bus the following morning.

So far there has been no news from investigators about the relationship between the two students or any possible motive for the stabbing.

No shots were fired by Officer Perrigo.

The police department declared Seymour cleared for duty early in November.