A crazy Bronx man fell repeatedly through cracks in the broken system in New York City. And there is rage that he allegedly killed a 14-year-old boy to be eventually trapped in a psychiatric facility.
Waldo Meziah's Saga – “I'm with Satan!” cried out, he showed the state's unwilling commitment laws need to be changed after the officer said he randomly thrusts a knife into the chest of teenager Caleb Lijos, Pol and his lawyer told the Post.
“New York City's criminal justice system includes the ever-evolving bail law — is not equipped to clearly show high-level signs of mental illness and treat people engaged in strange and violent behavior,” said Mark Bedellaux, a large defense attorney who has not been involved in the case.
“Even before this horrifying incident, there was this guy and all sorts of red flags, and that's totally pointless.”
Over the years of mental illness, Mezia threatened her mother, placing the lobby of her ex-girlfriend's building on the fire and stabbing her neighbor's doorbell camera, records and sources said.
However, 29-year-old Mezia appears to have repeatedly skirted her from mental health care, and it is said that he was first able to slash Strafanger and then fatally stab Rijo in January.
“He's doing it right in our eyes, in front of our own eyes, and our criminal justice system keeps it happening again and again,” said Congressman Sam Pirozzolo (R-Staten Island).
The judge ordered Mezia to a psychiatric facility this week. There, he will remain until he is deemed suitable for trial for murder and manslaughter for Lijos' murder.
The move came shortly after the Albany Democrats appeared poised to weaken or reject Gov. Kathy Hochul's bid to expand the unwilling commitment laws in the future state budget.
Instead, the DEM was circled around a weaker suggestion, calling for a review panel after an incident in which mentally ill people were cracked or hurting others.
One source familiar with state budget negotiations has shown that Hochul, Congressional Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) touched on the unwilling commitment proposal from the Preliminary Closure Association governor, and touched on the general agreement.
But the talk, which began in earnest this week, does not delve into what exactly those changes entailed, or whether they were able to rush someone like Mezia to prevent Rijos's pointless death.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tish said at a press conference following the Jan. 10 murder that the incident should be a call for action to address repeated offenders and serious mental health issues.
“The situation is just not working for New Yorkers,” Tish said.
“A murder of a 14-year-old child by a career criminal or a repeat offender who does not challenge him over and over again. [a severe] History of mental health interactions with NYPD. ”
Mezia suffered from schizophrenia and his family had I pushed him to get treatment spontaneously. Since his arrest in 2015, he has often stopped taking medication, but his brother-in-law told Gossamist.
According to law enforcement sources, the 2015 arrest was the first when officers said Mezia had a gravity knife that was supposed to be for protection – at least four times the first.
Sources said Meziah's next arrest had called police in May 2017 to say he would destroy the entire Bronx home.
She returned home, where she faced Mezia. Mezia told her “I have a gun,” the source said. Tensioned, she called the police who arrested her son.
The outcomes of both weapon cases remained unknown.
Then, in 2019, officers set the lobby on his ex-girlfriend's Bronx apartment and then arrested Mezia again, sources said.
He was found to be in reckless danger and arson charges admitted to being released on the condition that he is undergoing mental health treatment. According to the New York Times.
The next arrest came on November 27, 2024, a month before Rijos' murder – when his neighbor turned over the intrusive ring footage of Dead Idomezia, repeatedly stabbed the doorbell camera with a knife, and crushed it.
Neighbors said Mezia repeatedly harassed him, sources said.
Albany along the way
Gov. Kathy Hochul is facing a pushback from the state legislature over her proposal to curb the mental health crisis in New York City. The state legislature and the Senate have completely omitted or discarded some of Hochul's bids to extend their unwilling commitment in their respective counter-propositions to the governor's budget plan. Hochul's proposals include:
- We can expand the standards that a person can be forced to undergo psychiatric treatment, and include situations where mental health issues prevent them from caring about basic needs such as food, clothing, and healthcare.
- Expand the group of people who have the power to involuntarily commit someone to include psychiatric nurse practitioners.
- Streamline Kendra's legal aspects. This allows the court to order individuals with mental illnesses to assist in outpatient treatment.
However, he walked freely in his own perception the following day, as his misdemeanor case was not released on bail.
Mejia's defense attorney Patrick Brackley said Friday that he was still trying to piece together his client's history. He wasn't sure Mezia would need to take the mental test in any of her previous cases.
“That's the heart of the problem, because it's obviously an individual with existing psychological problems and can't take care of themselves as we can understand,” Brackley told the Post. “So somewhere, he was put in a position where he wasn't taking the medication properly.”
New York's bail reform also brought the judges' hands together in the doorbell case, said Bedero, a former Manhattan prosecutor.
Considering bail eligibility and potential risks for media could have paved the way for mental competence testing.
“This is an example of someone slipping through a crack,” Bedero said.
Police believe that crazy free media randomly cut Strafanger's arms at the Motthaven station on January 5th.
A week later, Lihos was walking along East 138th Avenue to the school when Mezia stabbed him twice in the chest, officers said.
Rojos called his father about to die and said he was too scared to breathe, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark told reporters.
Idelis Rodriguez, 47, one of Lijos' family neighbours, said his teenage father was a broken man and rarely spoke since the pointless stabbing wound.
“He either walks with his head down or he looks straight when he comes to the building,” she said.
Another family friend, Elizabeth Lawson, said Lihos' father was angry.
“He's ruined. He's always upset,” she said.
“This should never have happened. They always wait for something to happen to do something.”
In the lobby of Rijos' apartment building, his friends and neighbors established a memorial. They smeared posters and pierced balloons and flowers along the tiled walls, scribbled with a message of love and a call for justice.
“Mental illness is not an excuse to take an innocent life!” Read one note.
– Additional reports by Amanda Woods and Kyle Schnitzer
