A 33-year-old man accused of beating his mother to death in their family’s Bronx apartment was arrested Tuesday after he was spotted about seven blocks from his home, officials said.
Bob Johnny Guzman Soto was found near the corner of Edward L. Grant Highway and W. 170th St. in Highbridge after someone called 911 after recognizing him from a picture the NYPD shared with city news outlets, police said.
Guzman Soto was about a half mile from his home in the West Bronx when he was taken into custody, cops said.
Detectives charged him with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon for the vicious attack that killed his mother, 57-year-old Josefa Soto de Guzman, on Friday.
The arrest comes just over 24 hours after the NYPD released surveillance footage on Monday showing Guzman Soto slowly walking through the lobby of his mother’s apartment building wheeling a small suitcase.
Soto de Guzman’s husband, Johny Guzman, told the Daily News he found his wife dead, covered with blood and sitting on the living room sofa inside their Grand Concourse home near E. 168th St. around 3:25 p.m. Police say she suffered fatal injuries to her head and torso.
“I was working nearby and needed a tool, so I went to the house to get it,” Guzman said in Spanish. “I grabbed the tool and called out to her, but she didn’t answer, so I went into the living room and found her dead on the sofa.”
The grieving husband said Soto de Guzman wanted to take their son to Santo Domingo on Saturday and had already booked a flight, but the son was in the midst of a mental health crisis.
“She was very nervous while preparing for the trip,” Guzman said. “I told her to call an ambulance, but she refused because she didn’t want him stuck in the hospital for a long time. She had already bought the flight and didn’t want to leave him behind. She was obsessed with taking him because he hadn’t visited his home country since arriving here.”
Guzman Soto had a habit of grabbing a suitcase and going for a walk whenever he was suffering a mental health crisis, Guzman said.
“I believe — though I didn’t see it myself, as I wasn’t there — that she tried to stop him. I’ve tried to stop him myself on such occasions but he doesn’t listen so I just let him go,” he said. “I imagine he didn’t listen to her either. She kept trying and he hit her, that is what I think happened.”
Neighbors described the couple’s son as mentally unstable.
“He tweaks sometimes,” said neighbor Robin Santos, 24. “His thoughts just take him somewhere else on some crazy sh-t.”
“I never really thought that he was at this level of craziness,” she added.
Guzman Soto was quiet, reserved and religious and regularly attended local church groups and Bible studies, a 32-year-old neighbor who declined to give his name said.
“The son was unwell mentally,” that neighbor said. “He has a history of just kind of grabbing stuff and disappearing for a few days to a week even and then goes to check himself off in the in the hospital … They’ll medicate him and later on he just gets released.”
Guzman Soto’s arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court was pending Tuesday night.