Good morning. It’s Wednesday. Today we’ll look at the fatal stabbing of Caleb Rijos, 14. The man charged in the killing has a history of severe mental illness, a friend said.
Caleb Rijos, 14, was on his way to school on Jan. 10 when a stranger approached him and stabbed him twice in the chest, piercing his heart and lung and killing him. The police said that the stranger was Waldo Mejia, a man with a history of schizophrenia.
In court later that day, Mejia, 29, shouted that he was “with Satan.” A friend of his, Mozart Beato, also 29, said later that Mejia had often told him of hearing voices, and that they had sent him on missions, such as to a warehouse in Mississippi.
Nearly every time high-profile killings and attacks occur in New York City, the issues of mental health and recidivism dominate public discourse. Gov. Kathy Hochul and several mayoral candidates have proposed plans to prevent such attacks, such as allowing hospitals to commit more people whose mental illness have put them or others at risk.
“The systems that we have in place to deal with repeat offenders and individuals with severe mental health issues continue to fail us,” Jessica Tisch, the police commissioner, said at a news conference after Mejia’s arrest. “My message to New Yorkers is: Something has to give.”
Mejia had been arrested as a teenager for several minor offenses like marijuana or alcohol possession. But when he was 21, he was charged with possession of a weapon after smashing his mother’s flat-screen television, overturning a sofa and telling her he had a gun, which responding officers found under sofa cushions. His conviction was dismissed after he pleaded guilty and completed mental health treatment.
In 2019, Mejia was arrested and charged again, this time with arson after setting on fire the vestibule of his girlfriend’s apartment building. No one was hurt, and the damage was minimal. He was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge, reckless endangerment, if he were to undergo mental health treatment, which he did.
Last November, Mejia was charged with criminal mischief and harassment after he stabbed a neighbor’s Ring security camera over and over until it shattered. He was released on his own recognizance. On Jan. 5, in a subway station outside his apartment on East 138th Street, he stabbed a stranger through the left arm but was not immediately identified as a suspect.
That was just days before police said he stabbed Caleb. The boy lived with his father and sister on the other side of East 138th Street in a public housing building. Caleb wanted to move and had told his aunt, who lived in the Hudson Valley, that he would love to live there. He was a quiet student in middle school but blossomed at Bronx Leadership Academy High School.
“He was the nicest boy,” a friend, Heidi Escalera, 14, said. “Whenever someone had a beef or a drama, he’d always check up on him. He was never sad. He was so goofy.”
Caleb immediately called his father after he was stabbed. His father, Jacob Rijos, picked up but heard nothing but a gargling sound, like someone choking with blood. Rijos used the Find My iPhone feature and saw that his son was on East 138th Street. By the time Rijos got there, the phone feature said that Caleb was at Lincoln Hospital. Rijos rushed there and was told that Caleb was dead.
“It’s hard right now,” he said in an interview that day, shellshocked. “We still don’t know what happened.”
There were at least three memorials, vigils and marches in the week after his death. Friends, family and strangers released balloons into the darkening sky during one of the vigils.
Mejia’s friend Mozart Beato said that the stabbing of the Ring camera should have been taken more seriously.
“If I see somebody with a history of schizophrenia and he’s using a knife, I wouldn’t release him into society,” he said. “He’s mentally not there.”
Weather
Expect sunshine with temperatures in the low 20s. For tonight, cloudy with temperatures in the low 10s.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
Suspended today for snow removal.
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METROPOLITAN diary
On the F
Dear Diary:
I was on an uptown F train that was not particularly crowded. At some point, I sensed that a man sitting across from me was trying to get my attention.
I lowered my book, tilted my head downward and focused intently on the page in front of me to block his effort to engage with me.
I noticed him relaxing back in his seat and felt relieved that reading, which I use like armor to keep the bizarre aspects of the subway from percolating in, had saved me once again.
After the doors swooshed shut at 42nd Street, I prepared to hop off at the next stop, Rockefeller Center. As I opened my purse to put away my book, I inadvertently made eye contact with the man I had been avoiding.
He lifted a well-worn paperback from his lap so I could see the cover. We were reading the same book.
“Book club!” he said, smiling.
— Natasha Guarda
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. — L.F.
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
Francis Mateo and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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The post A Child Is Killed, and a Suspect’s Arrest History Raises Questions appeared first on New York Times.
