New York Metropolis prosecutors are looking for to drop homicide prices towards a bodega employee for fatally stabbing a person who bodily attacked him over a bag of chips.
Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg’s workplace on Tuesday requested a choose to drop the costs towards 61-year-old Jose Alba, who mentioned he was appearing in self-defense within the stabbing, courtroom filings present.
Bragg had confronted intense backlash after charging Alba, together with criticism from the town’s mayor, who mentioned the bodega employee was clearly justified in defending himself.
Alba, who had confronted a second-degree homicide cost, was working on the Blue Moon deli on July 1 when he fatally stabbed Austin Simon within the neck and chest.
Surveillance footage clearly confirmed that Simon, 37, had moved behind the counter on the comfort retailer in Hamilton Heights and pushed the shop clerk right into a stack of cabinets earlier than grabbing him.
It was solely then that Alba reached over to a shelf and pulled out a knife to struggle again.
Bodega employee Jose Alba (proper) was bodily attacked by a buyer earlier than pulling out a knife and fatally stabbing the person. Fees towards Alba are actually being dropped
Surveillance footage from the Blue Moon comfort retailer in Hamilton Heights confirmed Jose Alba, 61, was assaulted earlier than he grabbed a knife and stabbed Austin Simon, 37, on July 1
Jose Alba, 61, the Manhattan bodega employee charged with homicide for stabbing a person who assaulted him, is launched on bail earlier this month
Through the altercation, Alba was apparently stabbed by Simon’s girlfriend, who instigated the argument when her advantages card was declined. The girlfriend was by no means charged within the incident.
Tuesday’s movement to dismiss acknowledged that prosecutors ‘have decided that we can not show past an inexpensive doubt that the defendant was not justified in his use of lethal bodily drive.’
The submitting mentioned that ‘a murder case towards Alba couldn’t be confirmed at trial past an inexpensive doubt’ and that the case won’t be introduced to a grand jury.
Simon’s cousin Candra Simon criticized the choice to drop the costs towards Alba, and mentioned that it units a ‘harmful precedent’.
‘We’re all clearly disenchanted and might perceive that, it’s OK to take an unarmed man’s life,’ mentioned Candra Simon, based on the New York Occasions.
Alba’s protection legal professional didn’t instantly return a message looking for remark from DailyMail.com on Tuesday.
District Lawyer Bragg had confronted intense criticism after charging Alba, together with from Mayor Eric Adams.
Progressive DA Alvin Bragg had confronted intense criticism after charging the bodega employee
The progressive DA’s transfer to drop prices must be permitted by a choose, however probably implies that Alba’s authorized ordeal has come to an finish.
Strain had been rising for Bragg to drop the costs towards Alba since footage emerged exhibiting that Simon – who has beforehand been convicted for different assaults – had pushed Alba right into a shelf and began dragging him.
The footage reveals the 2 struggling earlier than Alba grabbed his knife and began stabbing Simon
Different videos obtained by DailyMail.com present Simon – who was on parole for attacking a police officer when he died – marching behind the bodega counter to confront Alba.
‘Papa, I do not need an issue, papa,’ Alba informed him calmly.
Simon charged into the Blue Moon comfort retailer minutes after his girlfriend tried to purchase a bag of chips for her daughter, however her digital advantages card had been declined.
That is the second Alba was stabbed within the arm by the girlfriend of the person he stabbed to dying on July 1 in a row over a bag of potato chips
Alba was stabbed within the arm by Simon’s girlfriend through the altercation
The girl, who claimed Alba snatched the bag of chips from the kid, is heard on the video asking Alba, ‘Did you set meals?’
Alba responds that he’ll attempt her card one other time.
‘OK, mama, let me do it one other time. My God,’ he says to her as she insists, ‘There’s cash on there.’
However he swipes the EBT card a number of instances and fingers it again to her, saying it isn’t working.
The girl was within the retailer together with her daughter making an attempt to purchase a bag of chips
The edited footage cuts to point out different prospects within the bodega as the lady is heard yelling out of view from the digital camera.
‘You possibly can’t contact my daughter. Do not snatch that out of my daughter, you f–king piece of shit!’
The girl had reported that Alba snatched the bag of chips from her daughter’s fingers once they could not pay.
She continues, ‘I am gonna deliver my n– down right here and he gonna f–okay you up. My n— is gonna come down right here proper now and f–okay you up!’
Alba tells her it isn’t his fault and the cardboard wasn’t working.
One other lady requested, ‘Did they take one thing from you?’ Alba replied, ‘No, I take it again.’
Simon can then be seen on the video storming into the shop and strolling behind the counter the place he confronts Alba.
‘What’s up with you? N****r what’s flawed with you?’ he yells at him.
It’s then that Simon pushes Alba into the shelf. In keeping with courtroom filings, Alba responded by stabbing Simon within the coronary heart, lung, and jugular vein.
The comfort retailer the place the incident occurred in Manhattan’s Hamilton Heights
Within the new video footage, it cuts to point out a bloodied Simon splayed out on the bodega ground and his girlfriend is heard yelling, ‘That was over $3. Three f**king {dollars}. He snatched one thing out of my daughter…please assist him.’
Insiders have claimed the girlfriend has not been charged for attacking the store employee as a result of prosecutors suppose she was defending her boyfriend.
Following the altercation, Simon was dropped at a neighborhood hospital the place he was pronounced useless; Alba was thrown within the metropolis’s notorious Riker’s Island jail on homicide prices.
He was initially being held on a $250,000 bond, however the district legal professional’s workplace lowered to $50,000 amid the rising outrage.
Amongst those that expressed their help for Alba was New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, who even visited the bodega to supply his help.
United Bodegas of America joined the requires Alba to be launched final week
‘I am an individual that is there for individuals following the regulation. I noticed from the video, I noticed a voter right here inside the shop following the regulation…It is time for New Yorkers and Individuals to begin standing up for individuals who comply with the regulation,’ he mentioned.
Republican gubernatorial nominee Lee Zeldin additionally slammed Bragg’s determination to cost Alba, tweeting: ‘My first Day 1 motion as Governor subsequent January will likely be to fireside Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.’
Alba’s fellow bodega employees mentioned they won’t let him return to work as a result of they concern the sufferer’s associates will come to hurt him.
‘We’re not letting him come again,’ a Blue Moon Comfort retailer employee named ‘Wilson’ informed the New York Submit.
Wilson mentioned the ‘family and friends’ of the slain man now know the place Alba works and his coworkers concern it is a ‘dying sentence’ if he returns to his submit.