As she was dying from gunshot wounds, a Brooklyn, N.Y., teen used her last breaths to identify the man who shot her because she refused to date him, police testified Monday.
According to the New York Daily News, 16-year-old Shemel Mercurius struggled through a painful 20-minute wait for an ambulance, but in that time, she told authorities about a 25-year-old man who wanted to date her and would not take no for an answer, the police said.
Taariq Stephens is the 25-year-old facing charges that he murdered Shemel, a junior at Edward R. Murrow High School. Shemel was babysitting her 3-year-old cousin in May 2016 when authorities say Stephens forced his way into the apartment in the New York City borough and shot her three times with a submachine gun.