Family of 3 found dead in suspected triple homicide in Bronx apartment building

Police said Monday they were searching for a suspect in the fatal stabbings of three people, including a 5-year-old boy, in a Bronx apartment building early Sunday.

Responding to a 911 call around 6:40 a.m. Sunday, officers found Jonathan Rivera, 38, unresponsive and bleeding from multiple stab wounds in the hallway of a building on East 136th Street in Mott Haven.

As the officers searched the area, they forced their way into a nearby apartment on the first floor. There, they discovered 5-year-old Kayden Rivera unresponsive and with multiple stab wounds on an air mattress and 33-year-old Hanoi Peralta unresponsive and with multiple stab wounds in a bedroom, according to police.

All three victims were pronounced dead at the scene, and investigators ruled the deaths as homicides.

Neighbors and relatives were struggling to process the deaths Monday, as the walls of the building’s lobby remained spattered with blood and police kept watch over the crime scene.

Rivera’s father, 60-year-old Miguel Angel Rivera, was outside the building, trying to understand who could have killed his son and why.

“He was a good father, he did the best he could for his son, and this is what happened to him,” he said in Spanish. “I really don’t know why this happened. I’m waiting for the agents from the 40th Precinct to let me know if they found his phone, because it has a ton of information on it. And her phone does too.”

Miguel Angel Rivera said his son had broken up with Peralta, Kayden’s mother, but continued to visit the Mott Haven building to spend time with his son.

Eusebio Baez, 33, a cousin of Jonathan Rivera’s, said his cousin and Peralta seemed to be patching things up recently.

The night before they were found dead, they attended a paint-and-sip together, Baez said, citing a post he saw on Rivera’s Instagram page.

“They were on social media having a good time,” Baez said. “He was basically showing them, showing the pictures of his painting, her painting, and saying, ‘look at how better her painting is than my painting.’”

“They were both happy,” he added. “It just doesn't make any sense.”

According to his father and cousin, Jonathan Rivera had three other children besides Kayden: two teenage girls and a 19-year-old son who had recently gotten a scholarship to a college upstate.

Baez said Rivera worked two janitorial jobs to provide for his children and loved to spoil Kayden. He added that friends used to poke fun at Rivera because he didn’t have large furniture, so that he could keep the living room open for his son’s toys.

Kayden loved to show off those toys, Baez said.

“He thought he was a superhero,” he recalled. “One day he'll be Spider Man, one day he's Sonic, one day he's Iron Man, those are his three favorites. And he will hold you by the hand and just show you, ‘this is my toy.’ And he was so good at sharing, he always wanted to play,” he said.

Outside of work, Jonathan Rivera pursued his passion for snowboarding with a large group of friends, recording his moves with a camera helmet, Baez said. “Jonathan was in no trouble, he barely had time to be out,” the cousin recounted. “His free time was catered to his kids and snowboarding.”

As police investigated the deaths, neighbors said they were worried about a potential suspect on the loose. The NYPD had not named a suspect as of early Monday afternoon.

Fernando Cruz, 65, said he heard fighting and screaming in the lobby around 11 p.m. Saturday but was too nervous to open his door and look out.

“I heard a big commotion in the hallway,” Cruz said. “I can't confirm what they were fighting about, but it sounded like there was a big tussle in the hallway, and then I heard banging on the door and stuff like that. It was something crazy.”

Cruz said he left his apartment Sunday morning to discover police in the hallway and blood on the walls.

He remembered seeing Peralta take her son to the corner store just days before.

“It’s a tragic thing,” Cruz said. “I’ve lived here 11 years and this is the first time anything like this has ever happened in this building. It kind of scares you, though.”

Miguel Angel Rivera, Jonathan’s father and Kayden’s grandfather, said he had a message for the suspect. “I would tell them to turn themselves in voluntarily, because you can’t fool God,” he said.

This story has been updated with new information.