Maniacal family massacre
The 19-year-old man suspected in a gruesome triple slaying in The Bronx claimed he was “hearing voices” — and was babysitting his 5-year-old half-brother just hours before cops believe he stabbed the boy and his parents to death, a police official said Tuesday.
The suspect, identified as Jayden Rivera, an upstate college student, was being held at the psychiatric ward of Westchester Medical Center, where he spontaneously told medical staff that he “did something bad and that he had killed somebody,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a news briefing.
Investigators were working on gathering probable cause and expect to charge the trouble teen with the murders of dad Jonathan Rivera, his dad’s girlfriend, Hanoi Peralta, and the couple’s young son, Kayden Rivera — whose butchered bodies were discovered at their Mott Haven apartment building early Sunday, Kenny said.
Prior to the stabbings, the suspect had told his mother “he was hearing voices,” Kenny said at the briefing.
“Later on, he stated to his mother again that he was hearing voices and that he thought that Mr. Rivera and Ms. Peralta were going to hurt him.”
‘Lord’s Prayer’
The teen was babysitting Kayden while their dad and his girlfriend were out on a date Saturday night as they patched up their relationship.
But Kenny said that at two points during the night, neighbors heard someone in the hallway screaming the Lord’s Prayer in Spanish and heard a man and woman screaming at 2 a.m. Sunday.
At around 6:40 a.m. Sunday, police responding to a 911 call discovered Jonathan Rivera, 38, in a pool of blood in the first-floor hallway of 33-yearold Peralta’s building, with stab wounds to the chest.
Police then found Peralta in a bedroom, also dead with multiple stab wounds, cops said. The body of the couple’s young son was discovered on an air mattress
Police sources said the bloodied teen showed up at his mom’s Westchester home and she called 911.
Additional reporting Jack Morphet