A 16-year-old boy has been arrested for the murder of a 57-year-old woman. fatally shot during the robbery of her husband in front of their apartment on the Lower East Side, police said Friday.
The teenager was taken into custody for the Sept. 9 shooting at victim Ying Zhu Liu’s apartment building on Market St. near Madison St., police said.
Investigators arrested the teenager on Thursdayaccusing him of murder, robbery, theft, and possession of weapons. The teenager’s name has not been released because of his age.
It was not immediately clear if he was the one who shot Liu as he and his accomplice, both wearing ski masks, tried to rob Liu’s husband, 61, a few steps from their apartment around 23 hours
The couple followed Liu’s husband into the building and into the elevator where they skipped it.
The crooks and the husband were locked in a fight when the elevator stopped at the eighth floor, where he lived with his wife.
“There was a scream, then another scream and then I heard a pop,” said a shocked resident of the building who did not provide his name to the Daily News shortly after the murder. “Then I heard more commotion and screaming.”
Surveillance video shows the couple’s 31-year-old son, Lin Rong Yan, known to neighbors as Paul, joined the fight once his father reached the eighth floor.
“Paul is out,” said the neighbor. “Paul and his father were scuffling with them.”
Father and son forced the burglars to the opposite end of the hallway from their apartment and through a door leading to a staircase, the neighbor said. After going through the door, Liu can be seen on the video running down the hall from the direction of his unit. He entered the stairwell door and moments later collapsed through it, the neighbor said.
“They go down the stairs and you don’t know what’s going on, but you see the mother running away. … She runs away and then a few seconds later she just falls to the floor. Her head hits the ground,” said the nearby
“He must have seen what was going on,” he added. “That must be the horde I heard – because the pop was right after the horde.”
Liu was shot in the right cheek by one of the deputies and died at the scene, police said.
The father and son were taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Lower Manhattan for injuries they suffered in the struggle with the robbers.
The family came from Fuzhou in China 10 years ago, and the father is a retired restaurant worker, the friend said.
“I don’t want to talk,” the son said as he and his father were released from the hospital. “It’s difficult. My mother was a good woman.”
A single box was recovered in the stairwell. The killers escaped with the husband’s cell phone and $100, police said.
One suspect was wearing a half-red, half-black sweatshirt, dark sweat pants with a white stripe down the side, and a ski mask, police said. The other was wearing a black sweatshirt, black pants, black and white sneakers, and a black ski mask.
It was not immediately disclosed how the police moved on the teenager, who was arrested without incident. The teenager’s charges were pending in Manhattan Criminal Court.
His accomplice was on the loose on Friday.