Kenny confirmed that the person of interest, Waldo Mejia, was already in custody and police were working closely with the Bronx District Attorney’s office to determine possible charges. “Still, if anyone has any information in regards to these two unprovoked stabbing incidents, you can contact us on at our tip line on 1800-577-TIPS,” he said.

 

Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres (NY-15), who represents Mott Haven, among other parts of The Bronx, issued a statement on Saturday morning in response to the 14-year-old’s death, saying, “Caleb Rijos, an innocent young teenager from The Bronx, was stabbed to death in a random act of violence. Rijos was simply standing alone on the sidewalk when Waldo Mejia [allegedly] ambushed him and savagely stabbed him twice in the chest before fleeing the scene.”

 

Torres continued, “Only a week ago, Mejia had [allegedly] stabbed someone else. He [allegedly] had four priors, at least one involving the use of a knife in Nov 2024. A 14–year old is dead because the State of New York failed him. The blood of the innocent and the young are in the hands of New York’s criminal justice system, which insists on releasing repeat stabbers.”

 

During a subsequent press conference on Saturday afternoon, Jan. 11, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark joined Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch and other senior members of the NYPD, including Kenny, to provide a further update on the case. Tisch described the incident as “an absolutely senseless and tragic case of a 14-year-old boy.” She added, “On behalf of the entire New York City Police Department, our condolences go out to the family, the friends, and the loved ones of this fine young man.” The commissioner confirmed that NYPD detectives from the 40th Precinct squad arrested Mejia, a 29-year-old male, for Caleb’s murder.

 

“Mr. Mejia is a career criminal with four prior unsealed arrests,” Tisch said. “The most recent one occurred on Nov. 27, 2024, when Mr. Mejia was arrested for stabbing another victim’s ring camera with a kitchen knife and, importantly, was released on his own recognizance the very next day.”

 

She continued, “In 2019, Mr. Mejia was arrested for burglary and arson after setting another victim’s residence on fire, and in 2017, he was found to be in possession of a 9mm gun loaded with nine rounds, including one in the chamber. Lastly, in 2015, Mr. Mejia was arrested in possession of a knife. Importantly, Mr. Mejia also has a documented history of mental health interaction with the NYPD.”

 

Describing the latest stabbing as a “heinous incident,” the police commissioner went on the describe how at about 9 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 10, a passerby saw a young boy collapsed between two parked cars on East 138th Street and flagged down EMS. “The victim had two stab wounds to the chest and was rushed to Lincoln Hospital, where he was tragically pronounced deceased,” she said. “This should be difficult for everyone to hear.”

 

Tisch continued, “Detectives from the 40 squad immediately began a video canvas, and footage they recovered showed what appeared to be an unprovoked attack on the child. From this video, a clear image of the perpetrator was captured and circulated to all members of the service. A member assigned to the Transit Bureau immediately recognized the photo from a wanted flyer for a person of interest in an assault to an unprovoked stabbing that occurred on Jan. 5 at the entrance to the subway station at East 138th Street and Third Avenue in The Bronx.”

 

She added, “Detectives, thinking the suspect could be local to the area, performed a 1000-foot radius search in our domain awareness system around the Jan. 5 subway crime scene, and got a very interesting result; 750 feet away, an earlier crime was reported in which an individual stabbed his neighbor’s ring camera. The suspect in that case, Mr. Waldo Mejia, was charged and released on his own recognizance.

 

Tisch said when detectives showed the arresting officer in that case the images taken from Friday’s stabbing, the officer immediately recognized the perpetrator as Mejia. “Officers now knew who they were looking for and, importantly, where he lived,” she said. “They obtained footage in the same ring camera he’d stabbed weeks prior, and saw him leaving his residence a few minutes before Friday’s stabbing.” The police commissioner said 40th Precinct patrol officers were posted near Mejia’s home, and just after midnight on Saturday morning, they spotted him returning to the building. She said they approached him and they detained him without incident.

“When he was arrested, Mr. Mejia was wearing the same sneakers and pants he wore during the homicide, and he was in possession of a bloody knife,” Tisch said. She went on to say that Mejia was a “violent recidivist with a documented history of mental health interactions with the NYPD” and that he was as of Saturday morning at the 40 Precinct being processed on a murder charge. “Today, a 14-year-old boy is dead, a family is devastated, a city is in mourning, and the systems that we have in place to deal with repeat offenders and individuals with severe mental health issues continue to fail us,” she concluded.

 

Kenny later shared more details about Caleb’s final moments, saying he had just left his home and was on his way to attend high school at the Bronx Leadership Academy. “What we learned from the video is that while Caleb is standing on the street minding his own business on the sidewalk on East 138 Street, he is approached by a male who suddenly and unexpectedly stabs him in the chest.”

 

He added, “Caleb receives two stab wounds to his chest, piercing his heart and his lungs. Caleb runs from his attacker, but falls down between two parked cars. Several New Yorkers come to his aid and they flag down a passing EMS ambulance. The victim is quickly transported to Lincoln Hospital within six minutes of this incident. Unfortunately, he cannot be saved.”

 

Kenny said members of the 40th Precinct and Bronx Homicide Squad responded to the scene to begin their investigation and were able to locate video of the perpetrator fleeing the scene of the crime. He said the image was captured and distributed electronically to every member of the NYPD via their department-issued smart phones which eventually led to Mejia’s arrest, adding that the suspect had also been observed wearing a pair of white gloves.

 

The police said Mejia, 29, was identified as male, Hispanic, with a date of birth of Dec. 28, 1995, and that he lives on Alexander Avenue in Mott Haven, in close proximity to where both stabbings took place. “Prior to this incident, he had four unsealed arrests for criminal mischief, where he stabbed a neighbor’s doorbell camera, burglary, and criminal possession of a weapon, where he was found to be in possession of a knife,” Kenny said.

 

The police chief went on to say that in conjunction with the Bronx DA’s office, Mejia was charged with murder, and both a bloody knife and the white gloves he was wearing during the stabbing were recovered from his person. He said detectives are continuing to investigate the Jan. 5 stabbing in hopes of bringing justice to that victim as well.

 

For her part, Clark thanked what she said was the “incredible work that has been done on this very tragic incident,” adding that the NYPD were working tirelessly with her homicide team on the case. “Caleb Rijos, stabbed in the heart on his way to school,” she said. “You know, he called his father and told his father that he couldn’t breathe and that he was scared, and his father heard him dying. This murder is a singular… is unfathomable to think about the level of this tragedy.”

 

She continued, “Caleb was a good student. He was a football player at the Bronx Leadership Academy. This was a random, unprovoked attack in the morning when this young man was going to school, and it defies everything we know about, everything in humanity. My Violence Response Team has contacted his family, as well as my Crime Victims Assistance Unit, and we are here to do everything that we can to stand ready to help this family through this destruction and this loss of life.”

 

The district attorney added, “It’s just heartbreaking, and it just goes to show these random acts of violence… people with serious mental illness continue to roam our streets and harm innocent citizens. This is tragic for this family. This is tragic for his classmates. This is tragic for the people of The Bronx and for the City of New York. Our prosecutors and the homicide bureau will continue to work on this. We are charging him with murder in the second degree, manslaughter in the first degree, and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree. He’s awaiting arraignment.”

 

She offered her condolences again to the family and said she wanted them to know that her office stands with them. “We’re going to do all that we can to get justice for Caleb,” Clark said.

In response to a question about what she thinks about the system that let Mejia go free so many times after the crimes he had [allegedly] committed in the past, the commissioner referred to her earlier remarks.

 

She added, “The status quo is just not working for New Yorkers. We do not have a system that puts the rights and needs of victims first, and my message to New Yorkers is: something has to give. A brutal, unprovoked killing of a 14-year-old child by a career criminal, a recidivist, over and over again, with severe… with a history of mental health interactions with the NYPD…. How many times does the mayor have to keep talking about this before something changes? I’m hopeful something will change. Let this be the call to action.”

 

In response to questions about the suspect having been released previously on his own recognizance, whether that was for a bailable  offense, and if he should have been released on that occasion, Kenny said he was arrested on that occasion for a misdemeanor. “Obviously, [there were] other factors the judge could have taken into consideration, like his past criminal history,” the chief said.

 

In response to a question for comment about an outreach worker who had been quoted as saying that gang activity had been brewing in the area where the stabbing happened, Kenny replied, “This incident has no gang ties, no gang nexus whatsoever. All indications that we’re seeing from interviewing parents and friends, social media are that this was a young man that was on the right path in life and was tragically taken from his parents.”

 

Asked if further charges were anticipated for the separate January slashing to the arm of the 38-year-old victim, Clark said, “We’re continuing to investigate that matter and should we get the right probable cause and the evidence that connects it in the right way, there will be charges pending for that as well.”

 

In response to a question about whether the stabbing of a ring camera was or was not bail eligible, Clark said, “The charge was criminal mischief. Depending on what his record was at the time, whether he was out on other things, those were factors that a judge could take into consideration but the charge itself is not bail eligible.”

 

Asked if Mejia had been sentenced for the misdemeanor that was not bail eligible, Clark said she would have to double-check what the sentence was on that occasion. In response to a question regarding where / how the system had failed, Clark said the misdemeanor took place in 2019 before New York’s bail reform changes took place. Later in 2019, New York State passed a bail reform law that eliminated cash bail for most misdemeanors and non-violent felonies amid substantial pushback by law enforcement at the time and later. “He was charged and as I said, that matter was closed in 2019,” Clark said.

 

Asked what could potentially have been done by the City along the way that might have prevented Caleb’s death, Clark said,
“I mean, there’s a lot of possibilities. I think the biggest thing when we’re talking about people with serious mental illness is that we need more resources to hold people accountable when they commit crimes and it’s related to their mental illness. There’s not enough secure facilities for them to get the help they need for the mental illness, and to hold them accountable for the crimes that they’re charged [with].”

 

She continued, “So, there’s a number of things that need to be happening. Bail is one of them, the laws for holding people who are seriously mentally ill, getting them treatment, or putting them in secure facilities while they’re being held on criminal charges, all of those things need to happen.” Given his mental health history, when asked if Mejia was aware of what he had done or if he had commented or said anything about it, Clark said, “We’re still investing the case.”

 

In reference to suggestions involving Gov. Kathy Hochul about whether it would be possible to make it easier to hold people [who have committed crimes / are acting violent] and who have a mental illness against their will, Clark said, “Anything is possible when there’s a will to do it. We need to do something to address people with serious mental illness. That is one of the things that the governor is suggesting. I haven’t read her whole proposal, but we need more done than what is being done now, absolutely.”

 

Mejia is presumed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.

 

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, or on X @NYPDTips.