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Detectives with the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office began investigating after Jonathan Mejia, 24, showed up at the emergency room at Hackensack University Medical Center with his mother on Tuesday, May 3, ranking law enforcement sources confirmed.
The suspect's mother "reported that Mejia may have shot and killed his uncle in the Bronx" the night before -- in what's formally known as avunculicide -- and had become suicidal, one of them told Daily Voice.
"She reported he did have a gun [on Monday]," he added.
The NYPD confirmed that Daniel Valdez, 43, had been shot in his home near West 234th Street in the borough's Kingsbridge section after an argument got physical around 6 p.m. Monday.
Valdez had let his killer in, then was shot in the torso during a fight as family members sat in a nearby room, they said. The father of two was later pronounced dead at NYC Health and Hospitals/Harlem (otherwise known as Harlem Hospital).
NYPD detectives went to HUMC in Hackensack after Mejia showed up at the emergency room with his mother Tuesday morning, multiple sources confirmed. The 5-foot-3-inch, 140-pound suspect was arrested soon after, records show.
Mejia has remained in custody at Bergen New Bridge Medical Center for mental health reasons. Prosecutors have charged him with being a fugitive from justice and will pursue an extradition hearing once he's cleared from the hospital.
NYPD officials said earlier -- without identifying Mejia by name -- that their investigators were looking to question a suspect whom they identified only as "a relative."
The investigators went with Bergen County prosecutor's detectives and Fair Lawn police to Mejia's mother's Madelyne Place home in Fair Lawn, among other locations, on Tuesday.
"The weapon wasn't immediately recovered," the law enforcement official said. "[It's] possibly at a different family member's home."
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