NYPD: Teen charged with murder after LES woman is fatally shot trying to protect her husband

A teenage boy was arrested Thursday and charged with the fatal shooting of a woman in her apartment building on Manhattan’s Lower East Side — marking the second time this week a teen has been arrested in connection with deadly gun violence.

Police said the 16-year-old boy was one of two masked thieves who followed Ying Zhu Liu’s husband into his building on Market and Madison Streets at around 11 p.m. on Sept. 9.

The teen and a second male individual then got into the elevator with Liu’s husband, where one of them pulled out a handgun and took his cell phone and $100, according to a criminal complaint.

When the elevator reached the eighth floor, the husband’s grown son was waiting for him, the complaint states. The son saw his father with the two masked individuals and tried to intervene, starting a physical altercation that spilled out into the hallway, the complaint states.

At that point, Liu, 57, came into the hallway, according to the complaint. One of the masked individuals raised his gun and fired a single shot at her from about three feet away, killing Liu almost instantly, the complaint states. The two masked individuals fled down the building’s stairwell, it says.

Police later reviewed surveillance footage that showed the 16-year-old and his accomplice without their masks at a deli on Hester Street, about an hour before they entered Liu’s building, the complaint states.

On Thursday, police executed a search warrant at the teen’s apartment on East 167th Street and found clothes he appeared to be wearing in the surveillance footage, along with one live 9mm round and court paperwork with his name on it, according to the complaint.

The teen was charged with murder in the second degree, robbery, burglary and criminal possession of a weapon. Police said he was taken into custody at 7:30 a.m. in the 5th precinct, which includes the Two Bridges neighborhood where the incident happened.

Gothamist is not naming him because he is a minor. According to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, a hearing will determine whether he will be tried as a juvenile or an adult.

His lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment, and the other individual described as taking part in the incident has not yet been arrested.

Earlier this week, police arrested a 15-year-old boy authorities say fatally shot 66-year-old William Alcindor in Queens. According to the Queens District Attorney’s office, the teen had been firing at a gang rival in a Popeyes parking lot. He missed, and the bullets struck Alcindor as he drove by the scene, authorities say.

The 15-year-old was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on Wednesday night, and a judge ordered him to remain in custody as the case proceeds, according to the DA’s office.

His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Teens have been arrested in 12 out of 147 fatal shooting incidents throughout the city so far this year, according to police data compiled by Gothamist. Last year, 15 teens were arrested in connection with fatal shootings, out of a total of 223 incidents.

This is a developing story and has be updated to include more details about the allegations against a 16-year-old boy.