A man wanted by police in connection with the shooting death of a Brooklyn teen was arrested and charged Thursday night, according to police.
Just hours after the NYPD identified 24-year-old Taariq Stephens as the suspect, police said he turned himself in at the 67th Precinct serving Flatbush and East Flatbush.
Stephens is accused of fatally shooting Shemel Mercurius, 16, on Tuesday in a Brooklyn Avenue apartment building, police said.
Officers were called to the apartment just before 6 p.m. after a report of one shot fired, the NYPD said.
Mercurius, who had been baby-sitting her 3-year-old cousin at the time, was found with multiple gunshot wounds inside the sixth-floor apartment, police said. According to police sources, Mercurius whispered her attacker’s name to police when she was found semiconscious.
Mercurius was taken to Kings County Hospital Center where she was pronounced dead, police said. The little boy was not injured.
Surveillance video from the building showed a man, identified as Stephens, and woman riding the elevator together before the attack. The man got off on the fifth floor, and the woman took it to the sixth, police said. But the man then climbed the stairs, emerging on the sixth floor, as well.
Stephens is later seen on video after the attack, allegedly running with what looks like a firearm in his hand, police said.
Police said the pair were not believed to be romantically involved.
Stephens has been charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon, according to police.
