A relative has been identified as a person of interest in the killing of three people — a 5-year-old boy and his parents — inside a Bronx apartment building, according to a law enforcement source with direct knowledge of the case.
Police provided no further information regarding the investigation into the slayings in the building near East 136th Street in the Mott Haven section. Another relative of the victims was inconsolable as he grieved at the scene a day after the gruesome discovery was made.
"Mi hijo is the best father in the world," Miguel Angel Rivera said of his son, Jonathan Rivera.
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The 38-year-old was found brutally murdered inside the building, along with his 5-year-old son. Detectives said Rivera was found in the first-floor hallway Sunday night just before 7 p.m. His son, Kayden, and the child's mother, 33-year-old Hanoi Peralta, were found inside their apartment upstairs.
All three were found stabbed to death, police said. A neighbor who saw the bloody scene told NBC New York he heard some commotion Sunday night outside of his home, what seemed like two men arguing at first.
"I heard a lot of yelling, and then I heard a woman screaming in the background," said neighbor Fernando Cruz. "It sounded really violent, what was going on in the hallway...I heard the yelling, and like I said, then there was this last thing where the man when 'Aaggghhh.' May have been the fatal blow. And then it got quiet."
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Neighbors said the three victims were a quiet but kind family, living together in the apartment. They would often go to the bodega downstairs.
“I see her every morning with her son and the guy -- he came in the morning to take the coffee. They was very nice people, very nice kid and the lady was very nice,” bodega owner Dahan Ali said. "I was so upset, I can’t believe it. They didn’t deserve those things, especially this family. It was a very nice family."
The city's medical examiner will determine their cause of death. No arrests have been made. An investigation is ongoing.
