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Murder Charges Against NYC Bodega Worker Have Been Dropped
Murder Charges Against Bodega Worker Have Been Dropped After Stabbing Man Who Attacked Him Behind The Counter
The Manhattan district attorney asked a judge Tuesday to dismiss murder charges against Harlem bodega worker Jose Alba for fatally stabbing a man who attacked him behind the counter of a deli.
DA Alvin Bragg’s decision brings a likely end to a nearly three-week ordeal for the 61-year-old Alba, who said he was acting in self-defense when he knifed Austin Simon inside the Blue Moon bodega on July 1.
He spent five days on Rikers Island, where a stab wound he received during the fight became infected, his supporters said. Alba’s case has become a flashpoint in the city, with Bragg’s critics blasting him for charging the clerk. Mayor Adams also came to Alba’s defense and saying he was “doing his job and someone aggressively went behind the counter to attack him.”
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The confrontation was caught on two separate cameras.
Simon stormed into the bodega that night after Alba grabbed a bag of chips from his girlfriend’s 10-year-old daughter when her mom couldn’t pay for the snack with her benefits card. Footage obtained shows Simon, 34, getting in Alba’s face and shoving the clerk into a chair behind the counter, sending him careening into a wall of merchandise.
Simon then grabbed Alba by the shirt and pulled him from the chair, guiding him away from the counter, ostensibly to make him apologize to the girl. Alba grabbed a nearby knife, though, and stabbed Simon five times.
Simon’s girlfriend stabbed Alba in the arm during the melee.
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