A second teenager was taken into custody on Friday in connection with the tragic shooting of a 57-year-old woman who was defending her husband and son from a pair of violent muggers in September, according to police reports.
Joshua Bell, 19, was charged with murder, robbery, burglary, and criminal possession of a weapon in the death of Ying Zhu Liu, who was shot in the face in the hallway of her family’s Lower Manhattan condo building at 44 Market Street, authorities stated.
The incident occurred around 11 p.m. when two individuals wearing ski masks followed Liu’s husband, Shen Yan, 61, into the condo’s elevator around 10:50 p.m. and brandished a handgun, according to police accounts.
The culprits took Yan’s Samsung phone and $100 in cash before the elevator doors opened on the 8th floor, where Yan lived with his family. Upon seeing his 32-year-old son, Lin Rong Yan, waiting in the hallway, he warned him of the danger, according to a criminal complaint.
“Stay back, they have a gun,” he cautioned his son.
Despite the warning, Lin Rong Yan attempted to intervene and was struck in the face and nose with the pistol, resulting in fractures.
Upon hearing the commotion, Liu emerged from the apartment to assist her family. One of the muggers then shot her in the face from a close distance, causing her to collapse on the floor with blood pouring from her mouth and head. Liu, a home health aide, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Dressed in a white T-shirt over a cream-colored shirt and shorts, along with black sandals and socks, Bell did not speak as detectives led him out of the 5th Precinct stationhouse on Friday afternoon. According to police records, Bell had previously been arrested for robbery in August of 2023 and was set to be arraigned that evening.
Another suspect, Dante Schaller, 16, who was apprehended 10 days after the shooting, faced the same charges as Bell. The Manhattan DA’s Office confirmed that Schaller, who had just turned 16 prior to the incident, would be tried as an adult. He also had a pending felony case for assaulting a police officer, as per sources.
