Distraught family members said they are trying to understand what led a bright teen to fatally stab his father, stepbrother and the boy’s mom during a bloody weekend rampage in their Bronx apartment.
Cops charged 19-year-old Jayden Rivera in the grisly triple homicide, saying the promising teen was the one who stabbed his own father to death, murdered his 5-year-old stepbrother and the boy’s mother after he snapped Sunday morning in the family’s Mott Haven Home.
Dead at the scene were Jonathan Rivera, 38, his wife Hanoi Peralta, and their young son Kayden Rivera.
Cops found the dad slumped against the wall in a first-floor hallway of his family’s building on E. 136th St. near Cypress Ave. around 6:40 a.m. Sunday.
Peralta was found face-up in bed with multiple stab wounds. Little Kayden was found face-up on an air mattress inside with numerous stab wounds.
The suspect checked into a suburban psychiatric ward after the slayings, police said.
Cops charged him with murder, manslaughter and weapon possession Wednesday night.
The boy’s grandfather, whose son died in the carnage, said he was trying to piece it all together.
Miguel Rodriguez said he is convinced of his other grandson’s guilt. The question he said nagging him is, “why?”
“He was there,” the grandfather said. “The cops got everything. I know how the law works. Ninety-nine percent it’s him. I know he’s the guy.”
He also said that the suspect’s father had recently bought $2,500 snowboarding shoes for him.
“He was into snowboarding,” the grandfather said. “These shoes are expensive, but my son got them for him. Whatever he wanted, he got it. I don’t know why he would do something like this. I don’t know if he was on drugs or whatever.”
Cops said Rivera was baby-sitting the child while the two adults went out to a “paint and date” before the killings began. The suspect confessed to the crime after “hearing voices,” police said.
Rivera was an A-plus student with a full college scholarship and a bright future, his lawyer told the Daily News.
“This kid is not only an honor student, an A-plus student, Regents scholarship, full scholarship to Oswego,” defense attorney Nicholas Ramcharitar told the Daily News. “He had never once picked up a bowling ball in his life and took his team to the championships. Baseball, basketball.
“This kid had everything going for him, everything,” he added. “Even NYPD was confused … Maybe the kid being so advanced, so intelligent, maybe it was an ego thing, a societal thing … The only thing I can garner from this is it must have been a psychotic break. He doesn’t do drugs. It wasn’t even that.
“He was a loved family member who was doing amazing things with this life … I want to understand. Everyone wants to understand.”
The grandfather said he will be at every hearing listening for details.
“I will be going to all his court dates,” he said. “Every day. Every court day.”