Second Suspect Apprehended in Shooting Death of Woman During Lower East Side Robbery

A second suspect, who was taken into custody in South Carolina, has been arrested and charged in the shooting of a woman who was killed in front of her family outside her Lower East Side apartment last September.

Joshua Bell, 19, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, robbery, burglary and criminal possession of a weapon.

Bell didn’t have anything to say as detectives led him out of the 5th precinct and into the back seat of a car on Friday.

Authorities tracked down the 19-year-old in South Carolina earlier this week, just about six months after the murder of Yin Zhu Liu.

Liu, was shot and killed while defending her husband from an attempted robbery inside the apartment building on Market Street on September 9.

Police say two suspects followed the victim’s husband into a condo building and into the elevator up to the eighth floor and tried to rob him.

Liu heard the commotion in the hallway, came outside of the apartment into the hallway with the couple’s son and was shot in the face.

The suspects were able to get down from the eighth floor and out of the building with the man’s phone and $100.

Bell’s accomplice, a 16-year-old boy, was arrested and charged with murder, criminal possession of a weapon and burglary less than two weeks later.

Detectives believe the 16-year-old is the one who fired the shots, but because both were involved in the robbery which led to the murder, both were charged.