A 14-year-old boy fatally stabbed on a Bronx corner on his way to school was the victim of a random attack committed by a mentally ill man with an established criminal history, NYPD officials said Saturday.
Waldo Mejia, 29, jumped young Caleb Rijos near the corner of E. 138th St. and Lincoln Ave. at about 9:30 a.m. Friday morning, jamming a serrated kitchen knife twice into the boy’s chest, cutting through his heart and lung, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.
The mortally wounded teen ran off down E. 138th St. toward Alexander Ave., where he called his father, begging for help.
“He told his father he couldn’t breathe and he was scared,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said Saturday. “His father heard him dying. It’s unfathomable to think about the level of this tragedy.”
Mejia was arrested early Saturday for stabbing Caleb to death, as well as for another random stabbing at the Third Ave. — E. 138th St. subway stop on Jan. 5.
The two separate attacks occurred about a half-block from each other. Mejia lives nearby, cops said.
Mejia, who was wearing a black hoodie, gray pants, black socks and white flip flops was walked out of the 40th precinct by cops Saturday afternoon where he cursed out reporters as he was placed in the backseat of a squad car.
“I don’t know what the f–k y’all doing here on this planet!” Mejia yelled to reporters. “Y’all f–k around and I’mma beat your a– like a f—ing adult when I catch y’all!”
Mejia has a long criminal history with four unsealed arrests, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Saturday. Two of those arrests involved knives. A third involved a gun.
Mejia was busted in November after a 43-year-old resident of a building on Alexander Ave. and E. 139th St. in Mott Haven who “feared for his safety” reported Mejia for harassing him and banging on his door repeatedly. Mejia proceeded to stab the victim’s doorbell camera, damaging it, cops said.
He was arrested soon after the incident and charged with criminal mischief and released without bail. The charge was not bail eligible.
“He is a violent recidivist with documented mental health interactions with the NYPD,” Tisch said at a press conference at police headquarters Saturday. “Today, a 14-year-old boy is dead, a family is devastated, a city is in mourning and the systems we have in place to deal with repeat offenders and people with severe mental health issues continue to fail us.”
Prosecutors charged Mejia with murder, manslaughter and weapons possession. His arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court was pending.
The charges for the Jan. 5 attack were also pending, Clark said.
Caleb’s devastated father told the Daily News Friday night that his family was still trying to piece together what happened.
“He was a wonderful boy. He was caring and loving. It’s hard right now,” said Jacob Rijos, 52. “We’re discussing the next steps. The police are still doing their investigation. We don’t really know what happened.”
Caleb’s family declined to comment Saturday after Majia’s arrest was made.
“The detectives told us,” a relative mumbled through a closed door. “We just want our privacy now.”
Surveillance footage viewed by The News shows Caleb sprinting north on Lincoln Ave. past a Gasolina station before darting east along E. 138th St., his attacker hot on his heels.
The teen ultimately collapsed between two parked cars. Witnesses called 911 and EMS rushed the teen to Lincoln Hospital, but he couldn’t be saved.
A worker at the Gasolina station who is also a friend of the teen’s family overheard Caleb’s call to his father.
“He called his father saying, ‘Dad, I can’t breathe,’” said the friend, who asked that his name be withheld. “He was running and the other guy got him.”
Caleb didn’t deserve to die in the streets, the family friend said.
“It’s crazy. It doesn’t make sense,” he said. “He was a good kid. He always dressed nice. He wasn’t a street kid.”
Caleb was a student at Bronx Leadership Academy and played for the school’s football team, friends and neighbors said.
“That’s a baby. He’s still a baby,” a resident of Caleb’s building told the News. “It’s horrible. They be going to school now and that’s gonna happen to them?
“He was just beginning life,” she said somberly. “That really hurt me.”
Kenny said his detectives distributed surveillance images of the attacker to the public as well as all officers on patrol. A short time later, a transit cop said the man looked exactly like the suspect wanted for a Jan. 5 stabbing at the Third Ave.—E. 138th St. subway station.
In that case, a 38-year-old man was heading down the subway stairs heading to the No. 6 train, when the suspect jumped him from behind for no reason and stabbed him in the left arm, Kenny said.
The victim was taken to an area hospital, where he received stitches for the wound, cops said.
“A police officer from the transit bureau recognized the perpetrator from the Jan. 5 incident and notified detectives,” Kenny said during a press conference late Friday night. “We quickly realized that the two cases were similar.”
Detectives conducted a 1,000-foot radius search of the area and checked pervious crimes involving knives “and got an interesting result,” Tisch said.
“Just 750 feet away [from the killing] there was an earlier crime in which an individual stabbed a Ring camera,” she said.
That incident led police to Mejia.
“When detectives showed the arresting officer in that case the images taken from Friday’s stabbing, she immediately recognized the perp as Mr. Mejia,” Tisch said. “Officers now knew who they were looking for and where he lived. They obtained footage from the same Ring camera he had stabbed weeks prior and saw him leaving his residence a few minutes before Friday’s stabbing.”
Cops grabbed Mejia returning to his building just after 12 a.m. Saturday. He was wearing the same sneakers and pants he wore during the stabbing.
“And he was in possession of a bloody knife,” Tisch said.
While the area where Caleb was killed is known for gang activity, cops found no evidence that the teen had run with a gang.
“This was a young man on the right path in life and was tragically taken from his parents,” Kenny said.
Mejia’s arrest comes as Gov. Hochul plans to introduce legislation in the state budget that would make it easier to involuntarily commit those suffering from mental illness to hospitals.
When she made her announcement, Hochul cited an uptick in violent crimes on the NYC subway system — including an incident where a homeless woman was fatally set on fire aboard a Brooklyn F train.
Mayor Adams has supported Hochul’s legislation — and has called for changing the state’s civil commitment laws.
“We must stop being so idealistic that we’re not realistic,” he said.
Tisch said Caleb’s “senseless and tragic” death should be a “call to action” to take the violently mentally ill off city streets and give them the help they need.
“The status quo is not working for New Yorkers,” she said. “We do not have a system to put the rights and needs of citizens first.
“Something has to give,” she said.
