A woman has been shot dead after she interrupted two burglars as they attempted to rob her husband – with bloody scene still untouched from Monday night.
Ying Zhu Liu, 57, heard a commotion about 11pm outside her eighth floor apartment in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
She opened the door, alongside her 32-year-old son, and was confronted by two men attempting to rob her husband’s cell phone.
Shots were fired and Liu took a bullet to the face. She died at the scene.
Horrific pictures from the scene have showed the aftermath of the killing – with crimson-red blood splattered across the apartment’s communal stairwell.
Drips of blood still stained the walls and hinges a day later – with a pool of blood still visible on the sanguine-stained ground from the horrific shooting
A woman has been tragically shot dead after she interrupted two burglars as they attempted to rob her husband
A blood-saturated pillow was seen propped up by an open door in the building.
Drips of blood still stained the walls and hinges a day later – with a pool of blood still visible on the sanguine-stained ground from the horrific shooting.
Neighbors inside the Lower East Side building have expressed their utter shock.
Speaking to DailyMail.com from his apartment, where the shooting took place, neighbor John said he’d never had any fears for his safety inside the building – until last night.
‘I felt safe here before,’ John said. ‘Obviously it is different now.’
John was scrolling on his phone inside his unit when he heard a loud altercation just out the front of his door.
Pictured: The blood-soaked corridor of the apartment building in the Lower East Side
Moments later, a gunshot rung out, followed by more shouting.
John’s hallway is now the scene of a murder investigation. If he steps outside his unit, he is greeted with a gruesome and bloody crime scene.
‘I feel for the son,’ he said. ‘Having to see your mother like this is a very, very hard thing.’
He didn’t know the family who lived across the hall from him very well. They were ‘kind,’ in passing, but John said residents in the building largely keep to themselves.
‘They were good people.’
The family unit reportedly all lived together in the building, having arrived in the US from China ‘at least 10 years ago.’
She opened the door, alongside her 32-year-old son, and was confronted by two men attempting to rob her husband
It is understood Liu’s son first heard a commotion in the hallway of the eighth floor, and stepped outside to see his father in an altercation with two masked men.
Liu reportedly then came from her unit in an effort to help, screaming and shouting. The melee moved from the elevator into the emergency stairwell, which is where Liu was shot.
A friend of Liu’s husband told media at the scene both the husband and son are receiving treatment for minor injuries at the Lower Presbyterian Hospital.
Nearby businesses were shocked by the tragedy.
A receptionist at a tattoo studio on the ground floor of the building said while this isn’t an ‘upscale’ area in Manhattan, employees and business owners had never had any real reason for concern.
Police are on the hunt for two suspects who fled on foot. One was wearing a black ski mask and hooded jacket which was black and red.
The duo snatched Liu’s husband’s phone before they ran from the scene.
Neither her husband or son were injured in the incident.
The building itself has 16 residential units , as well as a commercial space and a preschool on the ground floor.
