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On May 31, 2016, 16-year-old Shemel Mercurius was fatally shot by a man who wanted to have a romantic relationship with her. According to the New York Daily News, Taariq Stephens, 25, killed Shemel with a submachine gun after she rejected his advances. On Monday (December 11), New York Police Department (NYPD) officers testified about the shooting during Stephens’ trial at Brooklyn Supreme Court.
“There was a three-year-old male child…covered in blood crying next to the victim,” said Sgt. Ryan Habermehl, who was present at the scene after officers forced their way into her apartment. Mercurius was reportedly babysitting her three-year-old cousin at the time of the shooting. It took nearly 20 minutes for emergency medical services to arrive after Habermehl called for assistance.
Lona Junien, 18, a friend of Mercurius who showed up to the apartment building to visit her moments before the shooting, said she saw Stephens push Mercurius say, “Don’t ever lie to me,” then shoot her.
An ambulance arrived at 6:55 p.m. to transport Mercurius to Kings County Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 7:57 p.m.
NYPD officer Kyle Thomas Daly, who now works for the Suffolk County Police Department in Shirley, Long Island, said Mercurius was bleeding heavily when he arrived on the scene. Daly, who was able to provide aid and momentarily bring Mercurius back to consciousness, said she provided her name, date of birth, and the identity of the man who shot her before being taken away by ambulance.
Mercurius was a junior at Edward R. Murrow High School. She was living with her aunt after moving to the states from Guyana. She reportedly met Stephens at a daycare and exchanged numbers with him just a week before her death.
If Stephens is convicted of the pending second-degree murder and weapon charges, he could face 25 years to life in prison.
