Teen Used Last Breath to ID Suspect Who Shot Her After She Rejected Him

Inside the Brooklyn Supreme Court, they heard the harrowing tale of a teenager who used her dying breaths to identify the man who shot her after she refused to date him.

16-year-old Shemel Mercurius, a junior at Edward R. Murrow, met 25-year-old Taariq Stephens at a daycare center a week before the murder and exchanged phone numbers, according to authorities. Shemel was babysitting her 3-year-old cousin on May 31, 2016, when Taariq showed up at the Brooklyn Ave. apartment and shot her three times with a submachine gun. Shemel, who lived with her aunt after moving to the U.S. from Guyana four years ago, had buzzed a friend into the East Flatbush building moments before she was shot.

Lona Junien took the stand to describe what she saw happening between Shemel and Taariq when she showed up to visit her friend.“The person pushed her. The person said ‘Don’t ever lie to me.' She was screaming, he took out the gun and shot her,” said Junien, 18.

Junien admitted on cross-examination that a detective told her Stephens was the shooter before she identified him. Responding NYPD officers kicked down the apartment door to find a horrifying scene.

“There was a 3-year-old male child ... covered in blood crying next to the victim,” said Sgt. Ryan Habermehl, who testified that he immediately called EMS. “It took about 20 minutes for EMS to arrive."

Officer Kyle Thomas Daly found Shemel heavily bleeding, seated on a toy car and leaning against the wall.

“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,” said Daly, who has since left the NYPD to join the Suffolk County police department in Shirley, L.I.

Shemel was in and out of consciousness but the dying teen was able to tell another detective that Stephens wanted to be boyfriend and girlfriend, but she wasn't interested, according to Daly. The ambulance arrived at 6:55 p.m. and Shemel died at 7:57 p.m. at Kings County Hospital.

Stephens faces 25 years to life in prison for second-degree murder and weapons charges if convicted.