Four days before Valentine’s Day, ironically, tragedy has struck the Bedford Park community by Valentine’s Avenue and East 203rd Street once more, as a woman, a teen, and a young child were seemingly gunned down in their home in the early hours of Saturday morning. The woman is dead and the two other victims are stable, police said.

 

They later confirmed a 37-year-old man was taken into custody and charged.

 

According to the NYPD, on Saturday, Feb. 10, at around 5.13 a.m., officers from the 52nd Precinct responded to a 911 call regarding an assault in progress inside 226 East 203rd Street.

 

“Upon arrival, they observed a 40-year-old woman who had been shot multiple times in the upper torso, a 16-year-old male shot once in the buttocks and an 8-year-old male shot once in the left arm. EMS responded to the location and transported the 40-year-old female and 16-year-old male victims to St. Barnabas Hospital and the 8-year-old male victim was transported to NYC Health and Hospitals/Jacobi,” an NYPD spokesperson said.

“The 16-year-old male and 8-year-old male are both listed in stable condition. The 40-year-old female victim was later pronounced deceased at the hospital,” the spokesperson added.

 

Police later said on Saturday that the deceased was identified Saida Bonilla Mejia, 40, of 226 East 203rd Street.

 

Pursuant to an ongoing investigation, they said Rosvin A. Mejia Castillo, 37, of the same address was arrested and charged the same day at 12.15 p.m. at the 52nd Precinct.

Mejia Castillo has been charged with murder, two counts of attempted murder, three counts of assault, attempted assault, six counts of criminal possession of a weapon, and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

 

The 52nd Precinct Community Affairs team later said the fatal victim had been shot in her throat, abdomen, and upper back and that the incident appeared to be “domestic related.”

We spoke with one woman who lives in the building, who declined to be identified and who said she didn’t know the victim. Speaking in Spanish, she told Norwood News, “I arrived at like 3.40 a.m. at the building [on Saturday morning]. In reality, I didn’t see anything, when the police came at around 5.15 more or less, there was blood seen on the camera. In the camera, nobody was seen leaving. Only the police were seen leaving but they [neighbors] say it was the boyfriend of the victim. I never saw him.”

 

Asked how she felt about the situation, the woman said, “Well, it’s very sad. A mother.. you know.. a human being who is losing her life for…  Nobody in these days has feelings, it seems, to just kill another person as if it were nothing and it’s very sad what happened.” Asked if she was aware of any problems like drugs in the building, she said, “I don’t think so. I don’t know anything.”

 

Norwood News spoke to a cousin of the victim who confirmed that she had two children.

The victim’s cousin, a young man who we met on 203rd Street, who we are not identifying until the victim has been identified, said he received a call from another cousin at around 9.40 a.m. on Saturday when he happened to be at the hospital with his own father who he said had been taken in with diabetes issues a few days earlier. He said his cousin told him about the shooting of their other cousin, the resident of the building.

 

He said, “‘You heard about that?’ but I didn’t know anything.” The young man said that he thought the cousin who was calling him was trying to reach his father but as he was hospitalized, he reached him instead.

 

“And then he told me, my cousin, somebody murdered my cousin. I said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘Yeah, somebody murdered my cousin.’ I said, ‘Who?’ ‘They killed her,’ [his other cousin said]. They killed her? For what?”

Asked what he thought happened, the young man said, “Right now, man, I don’t think nothing. My mind, right now, is like uh.. [gestures that he is traumatized]. I think a lot of things. Why they do to her.. why they come and shooting…why they kill her.”

 

Asked if he knew if his cousin was in a domestic violence situation, he declined to answer directly. He later said, “Why they kill them like that? Why are they shooting? Why? If you got problems with her, why you don’t talk to fix the problem? If you don’t.. why? If you don’t want to live with her no more, okay, you can leave or whatever. You don’t have to… you don’t have to kill somebody too….you know? Yeah… and then…. I don’t know. I don’t know…. I can’t…” The young man continued, “Right now, I’m a little shocked because she’s a happy girl.”

 

Last year, as reported, two people were hospitalized after a Valentine’s Day stabbing on nearby Valentine Avenue.

 

Two people were also arrested for attempted murder following a separate shooting on the block in April 2023, as reported.

The Bronx District Attorney’s domestic violence unit can be reached on (718) 838 6688 and provides confidential support and services to those affected by domestic violence.

 

A person arrested and charged with a crime is deemed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.

 

Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, or on Twitter @NYPDTips.

All calls are strictly confidential.