A Bronx man has been charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of a 14-year-old boy, law enforcement sources told The Post.
Waldo Mejia also faces charges of manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon, the sources said.
The accused killer did not know Caleb Rijos, who was standing on the sidewalk of East 138th Street, near Lincoln Avenue, Friday morning when he was stabbed twice in the chest, sources and police said.
Rijos was taken to Lincoln Medical Center, where he later died from his injuries, police said.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch has called for a press conference on the case on Saturday afternoon.
Mejia is also believed responsible for a Jan. 5 stabbing at the Third Avenue and East 138th Street subway station in Mott Haven in which a 38-year-old man was cut in the left arm while standing on the stairs, the sources said. added.
After Rijos’ killing, an image of his killer was obtained from surveillance video and broadcast to officers hunting for the suspect, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a news conference late Friday.
Mejia, 29, has at least four prior criminal cases, including one from November in which he allegedly used a kitchen knife to stab a neighbor’s doorbell camera, police sources said.
He was arrested in April 2019 in The Bronx on charges of burglary and arson after deliberately setting fire to the lobby of a residential building, the sources said.
In May 2017, Mejia was arrested on charges of criminal possession of a weapon when he was found with a gun, and in January 2015, police caught him with a gravity knife, police sources said. The outcome of each case was not immediately clear.
