Bodega workers ask Manhattan DA to drop murder charges in deadly stabbing

NEW YORK – A group of bodega owners met with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Tuesday morning. 

They urged him to drop murder charges against a clerk following a deadly stabbing in Hamilton Heights. 

The clerk, who spoke exclusively with CBS2, says it was all in self defense. 

“We just want everything to be resolved and to be at peace,” said bodega owner Jose Castillo. 

As CBS2’s Elijah Westbrook reports, Castillo has been running a bodega in New York City for 13 years. He said the bodega business is like a family, and when incidents such as what took place with Jose Alba, the Hamilton Heights store clerk being charged with murder for allegedly stabbing a disgruntled customer, he says they must stick together. 

“Every single day in this kind of business you have been facing a similar situation. It’s escalating. We just don’t want it to get to this point,” Castillo said. “It’s clear in the video he was defending himself. No more than that.”

The video Castillo referring to shows the deadly altercation between Alba and 37-year-old Austin Simon, who can be seen in the video walking behind the counter and shoving the 61-year-old clerk at the Blue Moon convenience store in Hamilton Heights. 

Prosecutors say Simon was defending his girlfriend after her card was declined at the store. 

Simon pulled Alba up by his collar, and the two men got into a scuffle. Alba then allegedly stabs Simon with a box cutter. 

Alba spoke exclusively with CBS2’s Ali Bauman Monday behind his apartment door. He didn’t want to be on camera, and his daughter translated what he said took place. 

“He was put in a position where he couldn’t tell how it was going to end. He was just defending his life,” she said. 

Alba was arrested for second degree murder and spent five days on Rikers Island until a judge agreed to lower his bail last Thursday. 

Store workers in Lower Manhattan say, following their meeting with the DA, they hope the right thing is done. 

“This is why we’re here. To support the merchants of New York City and make sure that they should have the right to protect themselves, when they’re working legally and doing business,” said Abdul Mubarez, president of the Yemeni American Merchants Association. 

“We’re very hopeful that Jose Alba’s case will be dismissed, will be dropped by the district attorney. He has not made that determination yet. But he certainly has left the doors and windows open for that to happen,” said Fernando Mateo, spokesman for United Bodegas of America.