DYING BRAVERY

Jury hears how Brooklyn teen ID’d her killer

A BROOKLYN teenager used her last few breaths to tell cops the name of the man who shot her after she spurned his advances — as she struggled through an agonizing 20-minute wait for an ambulance, according to police testimony Monday.

Sixteen-year-old Shemel Mercurius (near right) was fatally shot inside a Brooklyn apartment last year by a 25-year-old who had wanted to date her, authorities said.

Inside Brooklyn Supreme Court on Monday, at the trial of Taariq Stephens (far right) — who is charged with murder — the courtroom heard from the hero patrol cop who had labored to try and keep the victim alive.

Shemel, a junior at Edward R. Murrow High School, was baby-sitting her 3-year-old cousin on May 31, 2016 when Stephens allegedly showed up at the Brooklyn Ave. apartment and shot her three times with a submachine gun.

Responding NYPD officers kicked down the apartment door to find a horrifying scene.

“There was a 3-year-old male child . . . covered in blood crying next to the victim,” said Sgt. Ryan Habermehl, who testified that he immediately called EMS.

“It took about 20 minutes for EMS to arrive,” said Habermehl.

Officer Kyle Daly found Shemel, bleeding heavily, seated on a toy car and leaning against the wall.

“I put on gloves, took her off the car and laid her down and began rendering aid . . . she regained consciousness, gave me her name and date of birth,” said Daly, who has since left the NYPD to join the Suffolk County police.

“It took a very long time for the ambulance to come, about 20 minutes,” said Daly.

While Shemel was in and out of consciousness, the dying teen told another detective that Stephens wanted to be her boyfriend, but she wasn’t interested, Daly said. Shemel and Stephens met at a day care center a week before the murder and exchanged phone numbers, authorities said.

An ambulance arrived at 6:55 p.m. and Shemel died at Kings County Hospital at 7:57 p.m., according to testimony.

Shemel, who lived with her aunt after moving to the U.S. four years ago from Guyana, had buzzed a friend into the East Flatbush building where she was baby-sitting moments before she was shot.

Lona Junien took the stand to describe what she saw happening between Stephens and Shemel when she showed up to visit her friend.

“The person pushed her. The person said, ‘Don’t ever lie to me.’ She was screaming, he took out the gun and shot her,” said Junien, 18.

Junien admitted on cross-examination that a detective told her Stephens was the shooter before she identified him.

If convicted, Stephens faces 25 years to life in prison for second-degree murder and weapons charges.