16-year-old busted in murder of woman during robbery of husband on Lower East Side

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 outside their apartment on the Lower East Side, police said Friday.

The teen was grabbed for the Sept. 9 shooting inside victim Ying Zhu Liu's apartment building on Market St. near Madison St., cops said.

Investigators arrested the teen on Thursday , charging him with murder, robbery, burglary, and weapons possession. The teen's name wasn't released because of his age.

It wasn't immediately clear if he was the one who shot Liu as he and his accomplice, who were both wearing ski masks, tried to rob Liu's 61-year-old husband just steps from their apartment around 11 p.m.

The pair followed Liu's husband into the building and onto the elevator where they jumped him .

The crooks and the husband were locked in a struggle when the elevator stopped on the eighth floor, where he lived with his wife.

"It was one shriek, then another shriek and then I heard a pop," a shocked building resident who did not provide his name told the Daily News shortly after the killing. "Then I heard more commotion and yelling."

Surveillance video shows the couple's 31-year-old son, Lin Rong Yan, whom neighbors know as Paul, joined the struggle once his dad reached the eighth floor.

"Paul came out," the neighbor said. "Paul and his father were scuffling with them."

Father and son forced the robbers to the opposite end of the hallway from their apartment and through a door leading into a stairwell, said the neighbor. After they went through the door, Liu can be seen on video running down the hall from the direction of their unit. She entered the stairwell door and then moments later collapsed through it, said the neighbor.

"They go in the stairwell and you don't know what's going on, but you see the mother running out. ... She runs out and then a few seconds later she just drops to the floor. Her head cracked on the floor," the neighbor said.

"She must have seen what was going on," he added. "That must have been the screams I heard — because the pop was right after the screams."

Liu was shot in the right cheek by one of the muggers and died at the scene, said police.

The father and son were taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Lower Manhattan for wounds they suffered in the fight 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 about it," the son said as he and his dad were released from the hospital. "It's difficult. My mom was a good woman."

A single shell casing was recovered in the stairwell. The killer crooks ran off with the husband's cell phone and $100, police said.

One suspect was wearing a half-red, half-black hoodie, dark sweatpants with a white stripe down the side, and a ski mask, police said. The other was wearing a black hoodie, black pants, black-and-white sneakers, and a black ski mask.

It was not immediately disclosed how cops zeroed in on the teen, who was arrested without incident. The teen's arraignment was pending in Manhattan Criminal Court.

His accomplice remained at large Friday.