Murder on Market St: 1 Teen Arrested, 2 Suspects Still At Large

Police have arrested a 16-year-old for the shocking September 9 robbery slaying of 57-year-old Ying Zhu Liu in her 44 Market Street apartment building.

Because of the suspect’s age, his name has not been released but he is facing charges of second-degree murder, robbery, burglary and criminal possession of a weapon.

According to police sources, two suspects are still being sought. This differs from initial reports of the crime, in which two sheisty-masked perpetrators were being sought. Sheisty masks—which is street parlance for black ski masks—have become an increasingly common, and increasingly criminal disguise since COVID normalized mask wearing generally.

While his identity is shielded by law, a New York Post photo of the arrested teen being taken away from the NYPD’s 5th Precinct house at 19 Elizabeth Streets shows him to be a thin, brown skinned male with dense, black, Afro-style hair, wearing blue and grey camouflage pants, a white t-shirt and a thin blue surgical mask, presumably to hide his face, not to “stop the spread.”

It is unclear why police have not yet released any surveillance photos of the suspects in the Ying Zhu Liu slaying but that’s not from the case’s only mystery— especially since it’s highly unlikely the perpetrators meant to kill her.

Their target rather was Liu’s husband who cops believe was followed into the building and onto the elevator to the family’s eighth floor apartment. ( Reports never give a proper name to that victim, he’s always a “61-year-old husband” or the like.)

Once in the eighth-floor hallway, the three suspects attempted to rob the husband and in the ensuing commotion, the couple’s son, 32-year-old Lin Rong Yan was pistol whipped, and Ying Zhu Liu fatally shot in the face.

It’s been reported that the perpetrators got away with the husband’s cell phone, which seems a negligible booty for such a senseless, brutal crime.

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

Aspects of the story to date suggest a failed home invasion but such a crime is unlikely to come from outside the Chinese community and the one teenager arrested so far doesn’t look Chinese.

Conversely, the notorious June 15 broad daylight attack on a 58-year-old Chinese woman, Shi Yahan, was perpetrated by two sheisty-masked Asian youths, one of whom, an unnamed 14-year-old, has been apprehended, and another who is believed to still be a fugitive.

In that assault, which took place outside 37 Monroe Street— literally around the corner from 44 Market Street—the suspected criminals did not use a gun, preferring fists, kicks, and a baseball bat as their weapons of attack, and cops quickly released surveillance photos.

In both cases, buildings adjacent to the crime scenes were shrouded in the de facto thieves’ den of dark scaffolding.