Jose Alba is being hailed as a hero on Twitter.
But the 51-year-old bodega worker is a criminal in the eyes of New York City police after a scuffle with a customer turned deadly.
Alba was arrested by police after he stabbed Austin Simon, 37, in a Friday night confrontation that was captured by surveillance video that has since been obtained by the New York Post. The video is graphic in its depiction of the incident.
Bodega worker Jose Alba charged in fatal stabbing feared for his life, family says https://t.co/FrBJkJGCYg pic.twitter.com/t9el0DvgGk
— New York Post (@nypost) July 6, 2022
The video showed Simon shoving Alba into a shelf and appeared to be yelling at him. Alba then reached for a knife while the two men struggled, resulting in Simon being stabbed.
Simon was taken to Harlem Hospital where he died. Alba was charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon. He was jailed on Rikers Island with bail set at $250,000. The incident had its roots in a visit to the bodega by a woman who wanted to buy a bag of chips, but did not have the money. Simon was then summoned.
The Daily News explained what took place before the video began.
“The lady threw everything from the counter and the machine, too,” Maad Ahmad, the owner of the Bluemoon Convenient Store said, referring to the store’s card reader. “She said, ‘I’m going to get my man, and he’s going to get you.’”
“He grabbed Jose by the neck and tried to get him to apologize to the girl,” Ahmad said. “He pushed Jose first, Jose was just defending himself.”
Should the bodega worker have been arrested?
“Jose said ‘I don’t want any problems,’” Ahmad said.
Police records said Alba told police, “He wanted me to come apologize to the girl. I took the knife we use to open boxes, and I stabbed him.”
Court documents also claim that Simon’s girlfriend stabbed Alba in the arm.
Many on Twitter sided with Alba.
Jose Alba is a hero!https://t.co/OpDTPb3Zd7
— ALL-BOROUGH (@NYGNYKNYRNYY) July 6, 2022
Jose Alba if you read this, this is not how America is supposed to be and sorry this happened, hopefully you can get a fair trial and have Justice.
— Ralph Lombardi (@derechononON) July 5, 2022
Alba’s son, Danny, created a GoFundMe for his father, calling the incident “a great injustice.”
“It hurts me knowing that a man cannot defend himself within his own community without being made to look like a villain,” he wrote.
“It is truly disgusting how they are trying to keep my dad in jail for protecting himself from a person who physically and verbally assaulted him before he took any action to protect his own life. If there is any justice left in the judicial system please let it work here, in the place where I was born and raised, Harlem,” he wrote.
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