A Bronx man with a history of arrests and mental illness has been charged with murder for fatally stabbing a 14-year-old in an unprovoked attack — prompting NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch to decry “the systems that … continue to fail us.”
Waldo Mejia is also facing manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon charges in the Friday morning slaying of Caleb Rijos, who was walking to school on East 138th Street, when Mejia, 29, allegedly stabbed him twice in the chest, cops said.
As he lay dying, Caleb called his father.
“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,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark told reporters at a Saturday news conference. “It’s unfathomable to think about the level of this tragedy.”
Rijos was taken to Lincoln Medical Center, where he later died from his injuries, cops said.
Tisch blamed the system.
“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,” Tisch said.
There have been 63 stabbings and slashings in the city as of Jan. 5, compared to 78 incidents in the same period in 2024, police data shows.
Detectives captured an image of Rijos’ suspected killer from surveillance video, and were led to Mejia after combing the neighborhood for other crimes, Tisch said.
They found a case in which a resident near the crime scene reported their doorbell camera had been stabbed with a kitchen knife on Nov. 27, the commissioner said.
They identified Mejia because he had been charged in the crime and released on his own recognizance the next day in the non-bail eligible case, she said.
Detectives showed the arresting officer in the doorbell camera case photos of the suspect in the stabbing and she recognized the stabber as Mejia, Tisch said.
“They obtained footage from the same ring camera he’d stabbed weeks prior, and saw him leaving his residence a few minutes before Friday’s stabbing,” she said.
The commissioner slammed the revolving-door criminal justice system in the Big Apple for Rijos’ murder.
“The status quo is just not working for New Yorkers,” Tisch said during the news conference. “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 or recidivist over and over again, with [a severe] 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 a call to action,” Tisch added.
Mejia is also believed to be responsible for a Jan. 5 stabbing in the Third Avenue and East 138th Street subway station in Mott Haven, during which a 38-year-old man was slashed in the left arm while standing on the steps, police said.
Mejia has at least four prior criminal cases, police sources said.
He is due in court on Jan. 21 for the November incident, according to public records.
He was also arrested in The Bronx in April 2019 on burglary and arson charges after he intentionally set the lobby of his ex-girlfriend’s building on fire, according to authorities. He pleaded down to reckless endangerment in the case, and was granted a conditional discharge, officials said.
In May 2017, Mejia was arrested on criminal possession of weapons charges when he was found with a nine-millimeter pistol loaded with nine rounds, including one in the chamber when cops caught up with him, Tisch said.
And in January 2015, police caught him with a gravity knife, police sources said.
The outcome of the weapons cases wasn’t immediately clear.
On top of his lengthy criminal record, Tisch said Mejia has “a documented history of mental health interaction with the NYPD.”
