A person of interest in the deadly stabbing of a Bronx teen on Friday morning is now in custody with charges pending, police officials reported early Saturday morning.
Detectives believe the unnamed individual who fatally attacked a 14-year-old boy on East 138th Street just after 9:20 a.m. on Jan. 10 in an unprovoked assault may have also been responsible for another random stabbing in the borough earlier in the week.
Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said the person of interest was tracked down after the NYPD obtained images of the individual and disseminated them via text message to every member of the department. A police officer in the NYPD Transit Bureau recognized the individual from the previous stabbing and notified detectives, helping them track them down.
“At this time, we believe the two incidents are connected and were committed by the same perpetrator,” Kenny said during a Jan. 11 press conference at the 69th Precinct in Brooklyn, where police officials outlined details of an unrelated incident.
Police said the teenage stabbing victim, 14-year-old Caleb Rijos of Alexander Avenue, was stabbed twice in the torso at about 9:25 a.m. on Jan. 10 near 300 East 138th St. in Mott Haven.
Video of the incident, Kenny said, showed the victim standing alone on the sidewalk when the suspect approached and violently stabbed him without any provocation.
Officers from the 40th Precinct responded to the incident. EMS rushed Rijos to Lincoln Hospital, where he died a short time later.
The video from the crime scene showed the suspect, who was described as a Hispanic man with a slim build, standing between 6 feet, 1 inch and 6 feet, 3 inches tall, who wore a black jacket, gray pants and black Nike sneakers.
After disseminating still images of him to NYPD members, the Transit Bureau officer recognized the man as the suspect in a Jan. 5 stabbing at the corner of East 138th Street and 3rd Avenue in Mott Haven — only steps away from where Rijos was fatally attacked five days later.
In the Jan. 5 incident, Kenny said, the victim, a 38-year-old man, was knifed in the left arm by the perpetrator while walking down the stairs leading to the 3rd Avenue-East 138th Street subway station. EMS took the victim to a local hospital, where he received several stitches to close the wound.
Police also say this incident was an unprovoked attack.
Later on Friday, the person of interest in both stabbings was apprehended and brought in for questioning. Charges against him are pending the ongoing investigation and consultation with the Bronx District Attorney’s office, Kenny said Saturday.
