1 teenager arrested, 2 suspects still at large

Police have arrested a 16-year-old for the shocking robbery of 57-year-old Ying Zhu Liu at her home at 44 Market Street on September 9.

Due to his age, his name has not been released, but he is charged with second-degree murder, robbery, burglary and illegal possession of a firearm.

Police sources say two suspects are still being sought. This differs from initial reports of the crime, which were looking for two perpetrators wearing sheisty masks. Sheisty masks – black ski masks in street slang – have become an increasingly common and increasingly criminal disguise since COVID has normalized mask-wearing across the board.

Although his identity is protected by law, a New York Post photo of the arrested teenager being led away from the NYPD's 5th Precinct building at 19 Elizabeth Street shows him to be a thin man with brown skin and thick black afro hair. He is wearing blue-gray camouflage pants, a white T-shirt and a thin blue face mask, presumably to hide his face, not to “stop the spread.”

It is unclear why police have not yet released surveillance photos of the suspects in the Ying Zhu Liu murder case, but that is not the only mystery in the case – especially since it is highly unlikely that the perpetrators intended to kill her.

Rather, their target was Liu's husband, who police believe was followed into the building and to the elevator of the family's eighth-floor apartment. (The reports never give the victim's real name, always referring to a “61-year-old husband” or something similar.)

In the eighth-floor hallway, the three suspects attempted to rob the husband. In the ensuing commotion, the couple's son, 32-year-old Lin Rong Yan, was beaten with a pistol and Ying Zhu Liu was fatally wounded by a shot to the face.

The perpetrators reportedly stole the husband's mobile phone, a negligible loot considering such a senseless and brutal crime.

In addition to the missing suspects, numerous other questions remain unanswered. Was the husband previously the target of this attempted robbery and if so, how and why?

Some aspects of the story so far point to a botched burglary, but such a crime is unlikely to be committed outside the Chinese community, and the one teenager arrested so far does not look Chinese.

The notorious attack on 58-year-old Chinese woman Shi Yahan on June 15, however, was carried out by two masked Asian youths. One of the two, an unnamed 14-year-old, has since been arrested, the other is still believed to be on the run.

In the attack, which occurred in front of 37 Monroe Street – literally around the corner from 44 Market Street – the suspected perpetrators did not use a firearm, preferring fists, kicks and a baseball bat as offensive weapons. Police immediately released surveillance photos.

In both cases, the buildings adjacent to the crime scenes were surrounded by dark scaffolding that was essentially a thieves' den.