Husband issues dire warning after wife was fatally shot during robbery in New York

“Stay away, they have a gun” – that's what a desperate Manhattan man told his family just moments before his wife was shot in the head at point-blank range by a teenage mugger and his buddy during a botched robbery, new court documents show.

The heartbreaking details of the tragic murder of 57-year-old Ying Zhu Liu in her Two Bridges apartment building earlier this month were laid out in a criminal complaint accusing a 16-year-old boy of murder.

Teenager Dante Schaller and an accomplice who is still at large followed Liu's husband Shen Yan, 61, into the elevator of the Market Street apartment at around 10:50 p.m. on September 9 and pointed a gun at him, police said.

Yan, who doesn't speak English, realized he was being robbed – and the masked suspects grabbed his Samsung phone and $100 in cash, the criminal complaint says.

When the elevator doors opened on the eighth floor – where Yan lived with his family – the father saw his son waiting for him in the hallway and gave him a stark warning.

“Stay away, you have a gun,” he said, according to the file.

The son, 32-year-old Lin Rong Yan, tried to intervene and was hit with a pistol by one of the suspects, suffering multiple broken bones in his face and nose, according to prosecutors, who said the attack was captured on surveillance camera video.

His mother heard the commotion in the hallway and left the apartment to help her husband and son.

The fight moved into the stairwell, where one of the robbers raised a gun and fired a single shot into Liu's face from three feet away, the indictment says. The indictment does not say which suspect fired the trigger.

Liu, a home health aide, fell to the ground with blood pouring from her mouth and head.

Paramedics confirmed her death on the scene; she had suffered a gunshot wound to the head.

Manhattan prosecutors said Schaller and his accomplice were seen on surveillance video from a nearby deli wearing the same clothes they wore during the heartless crime – but without masks – just 40 minutes before the murder.

Schaller was identified wearing a red hoodie, the complaint said.

Investigators found the hoodie and a live 9mm cartridge in the teenager's East 167th Street home, authorities said.

Police also said they found a 9mm cartridge on a stairstep and discovered a bullet fragment in the hallway of the building where the victims lived.

Schaller was arrested on Thursday.

When he was arraigned, he was remanded in custody on charges of murder, burglary, robbery and illegal possession of weapons and was denied bail.

According to sources, proceedings are still pending against Schaller, who just turned 16 on September 11, for assault on a police officer.

He appeared before a juvenile court judge Friday morning, where his attorney, Sam Roberts of the Legal Aid Society, attempted to get the murder charge downgraded.

“It is not alleged that he is the shooter, nor is it alleged that he was in possession of the weapon at any time,” he argued.

But Judge Stephen Antigani was undeterred and said of the grand jury: “If they think it is appropriate, they will indict. If they do not think it is appropriate, they will not indict.”

The judge also asked Roberts to recuse himself from appealing because of a possible conflict with another juvenile case.

During the hearing, Schaller's relatives filled the back row of the courtroom and his mother cried.

As he was dragged away, the teenager shouted, “Love you too. Yo, kiss my baby, kiss my baby,” and a woman in the gallery kissed a baby she was holding.

He has to appear in court again on Tuesday.

The Manhattan district attorney's office said there would be a hearing at a later date on whether he should be prosecuted as an adult.