NYPD: Two men fatally shot a woman in the hall of her LES building over a cellphone

Two robbers shot and killed a woman in her Manhattan building Monday night, and the attackers have not been identified, police said.

NYPD officials said Ying Zhu Liu, 57, was fatally shot at around 11 p.m. in her building on Market Street and Madison Street, just beside the Manhattan Bridge on the Lower East Side.

Two men had initially followed Liu’s husband into the elevator, and once they reached the 8th floor, they tried to rob him, police said. Liu came into the hallway to intervene one of the men pulled out a gun and shot her in the face, police said.

The men then grabbed Liu’s husband’s cell phone and ran off, according to police.

One of the men was described as wearing a black and red hooded jacket, white sneakers, dark pants with a white stripe down the leg and a black ski mask. The other man was wearing a black hooded coat, a black ski mask, black pants and black and white sneakers, police said.

The building includes just two apartments on each flood, with cameras overhead. On Tuesday morning, blood pooled in the 8th floor hallway where Liu and her husband lived. Neighbors told Gothamist they were puzzled as to how robbers could have come in at all, because the front door and inside door both lock.

" It's a very safe area and a safe building," said neighbor William Morgan, living several floors down. He said he just heard a big "boom" Monday night.

Besides Monday night’s shooting, the 5th precinct– which includes Chinatown, Little Italy and the Bowery– has only reported one shooting incident so far this year, according to the NYPD’s CompStat database. Seven incidents were reported in the precinct in 2023.

According to data compiled by Gothamist on fatal shootings, no one has died of gun violence in the 5th precinct this year, and there were no fatal shootings in the precinct throughout all of 2023.

This story is based on preliminary information provided by the NYPD and may be updated.