16-Year-Old Brooklyn Girl Shot Dead in Her East Flatbush Home: NYPD

Photos via Shemel Mercurius/Facebook

EAST FLATBUSH, BROOKLYN — A 16-year-old girl was murdered in her East Flatbush home Tuesday night, according to the NYPD.

Cops said they got a call reporting a gunshot fired near Brooklyn and Foster avenues around 6 p.m. Tuesday.

When they arrived to the large, brick apartment building at that intersection, NYPD officers said in a news release that they "observed a semi-conscious female with multiple gunshot wounds to her body" on the sixth floor.

The victim was identified soon after as 16-year-old Shemel Mercurius, a resident of the building.

According to the New York Daily News, Mercurius moved to Brooklyn from Guyana four years ago, and had been living with her aunt, Latoya Price, at the same East Flatbush apartment where she was killed.

The murder victim, a student at Edward R. Murrow High School in Midwood, was reportedly babysitting her 3-year-old cousin Josiah when she was attacked.

Mercurius' killer still had not been arrested by early Wednesday morning, according to the NYPD. A spokesman for the department would not say whether there was a particular suspect detectives were chasing.

However, "police sources" told the Daily News that cops are looking for the girl's boyfriend, who reportedly came to the apartment while she was babysitting Tuesday night.

The victim's grandmother, 70-year-old Joan Mercurius, told the newspaper that she hasn't yet been able to reach Shemel's mom in Guyana to give her the devastating news. “We brought her here for a better life," the grandma said. "We hoped she could go to college.”

“She was so cute, and she grew up so fast,” Joan Mercurius told the Daily News. “This is so terrible.”

CBS2 reported that when cops arrived to the crime scene Wednesday night, Shemel was still semi-conscious and could describe her killer — and that based on the information she gave them, homicide detectives are now searching for her boyfriend.

"My prayers and thoughts are with Shemel Mercurius' family," New York City Councilman Jumaane Williams, who represents East Flatbush, said in a statement issued Wednesday. "Let's all offer prayers of peace and comfort for them during this time of mourning, over a senseless death."

Just once day before, Williams and other Brooklyn electeds had kicked off Gun Violence Awareness Month at a somber city press conference.

"It's sad and disheartening that I am issuing a statement on yet another fatal shooting, and worse that another family is in unimaginable pain and distress," Williams said Wednesday. "Much more, we lost a 16-year-old child who was at the beginning of her life."

This is a developing story. Refresh the page for updates.