Teenage girl named killer while dying, court hears

Shemel Mercurius was babysitting a three-year-old boy in her Brooklyn, New York, apartment when she was gunned down on in May last year

A 16-year-old girl used her last breaths to utter the name of the man who shot her dead after she rejected his advances, police have claimed.

Shemel Mercurius was babysitting a three-year-old boy in her Brooklyn, New York, apartment when she was gunned down in May last year.

She lay in agony for 20 minutes while waiting for an ambulance to arrive, telling cops her killer’s name as she slipped in and out of consciousness.

One of the officers who responded to the shooting, Sgt Ryan Habermehl, told Brooklyn Supreme Court yesterday that Mercurius blamed Taariq Stephens for her death, according to the New York Daily News.

Stephens, 26, is on trial for the murder of Mercurius. 

Cops say he shot the teenager, who had moved to the US from Guyana, because she rejected his request for a relationship.

He was allegedly seen getting into an elevator, apparently armed with a 40-caliber Kel-Tec submachine gun, before running away from the sixth-floor apartment.

Giving testimony, Sgt Habermehl said he found a three-year-old child ‘covered in blood’ and ‘crying next to the victim’ when he and other officers broke down the door. 

Cops say Stephens gunned down the teenager, who had moved to the US from Guyana, because she rejected his request for a relationship

Shemel Mercurius

Cops say Stephens (left) gunned down the teenager (right), who had moved to the US from Guyana, because she rejected his request for a relationship

Kyle Thomas, another cop at the scene, told the court: ‘I put on gloves, took her off the car and laid her down and began rendering aid […] she regained consciousness, gave me her name and date of birth.’ 

He added: ‘It took a very long time for the ambulance to come, about 20 minutes.’ 

She died at Kings County Hospital an hour after being picked up by an ambulance. 

A friend of hers, Lona Junien, told the court she saw the shooter push Mercurius before saying: ‘Don’t ever lie to me’.

He then shot her, Junien added.

But she also admitted that police officers had told her Stephens was the shooter before she identified him. 

A friend of Mercurius's (pictured), Lona Junien, told the court she saw Stephens the shooter push Mercurius before saying: 'Don't ever lie to me'

A friend of Mercurius’s (pictured), Lona Junien, told the court she saw Stephens the shooter push Mercurius before saying: ‘Don’t ever lie to me’

Junien pointed Stephens out in the courtroom but said she was ‘scared’, the Brooklyn Eagle reported.

Stephens, who turned himself in two days after the shooting, faces 25 years in jail if convicted of murder.



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