“Stay back, they have a gun” — that’s what a desperate Manhattan man told his family moments before his wife was shot in the head by a teenage robber and his friend in a botched robbery, new court papers show.
The heartbreaking details of the tragic murder of 57-year-old Ying Zhu Liu in her Two Bridges apartment building earlier this month were detailed in a criminal complaint charging a 16-year-old boy with murder in her shooting.
The teen, Dante Schaller, and a still-at-large accomplice followed Liu’s husband, Shen Yan, 61, into the elevator of the Market Street apartment around 10:50 p.m. on September 9 and pulled a gun on him, according to police.
Yan, who does not speak English, realized he was being robbed — and the masked suspects took his Samsung phone and $100 in cash, the complaint said.
When the elevator doors opened on the eighth floor – where Yan lived with his family – the father saw his son waiting for him in the hallway and issued a chilling warning.
“Stay back, they have a gun,” he said, according to the complaint.
The son, 32-year-old Lin Rong Yan, tried to intervene and was pistol-whipped by one of the suspects. He suffered multiple fractures to his face and nose, according to prosecutors, who said the attack was captured on surveillance video.
His mother heard the commotion coming from the hallway and stepped out of the apartment to try to help her husband and son.
The fight moved to the stairwell, where one of the robbers raised a gun and fired a single shot into Liu’s face from several feet away, according to the complaint, which does not specify which suspect pulled the trigger.
Liu, a home health aide, fell to the ground and blood flowed from her mouth and head.
EMTs pronounced her dead at the scene of a gunshot wound to the head.
Prosecutors in Manhattan said Schaller and his accomplice were caught on surveillance footage from a nearby deli wearing the same clothes they wore during the callous crime — but without their masks — just 40 minutes before the murder.
According to the complaint, Schaller was wearing a red hooded sweatshirt.
The hoodie was found by investigators at the teen’s home on East 167th Street, as was a live 9mm round, authorities said.
Police also said they found a 9mm round on a stairwell step and found a bullet fragment in the hallway of the victims’ building.
Schaller was arrested Thursday.
He was ordered held without bail on charges of murder, burglary, robbery and criminal possession of a weapon during his arraignment.
Schaller, who just turned 16 on September 11, has an open felony case for assaulting a police officer, according to sources.
He appeared in juvenile court on Friday morning, where his lawyer, Sam Roberts of the Legal Aid Society, attempted to have the murder charge reduced.
“It is not alleged that he is the shooter, nor is it alleged that he had the weapon in his possession at any time,” he argued.
But Judge Stephen Antinani didn’t bite, saying of the grand jury: “If they think it’s appropriate, they will indict him. If they don’t think it’s appropriate, they won’t charge him.”
Roberts was also asked by the judge to withdraw due to a possible conflict with a separate juvenile case.
Schaller’s family members sat in the back row of the courtroom during the hearing as his mother cried.
As he was being dragged away, the teen shouted, “I love you too. Yo kiss my baby, kiss my baby” and a woman in the gallery kissed a baby she was holding.
He must appear in court again on Tuesday.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said a hearing would be held at a later date on whether he will be prosecuted as an adult.
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