Jose Alba is being charged with second-degree murder after fatally stabbing a man who attacked him.
New York City bodega owners called upon District Attorney Alvin Bragg to drop murder charges against Jose Alba during a press conference at City Hall on Wednesday.
Alba, 61, was hit with second-degree murder charges after fatally stabbing Austin Simon, a 35-year-old black man, who attacked him while he was working as a cashier at Hamilton Heights Grocery in Manhattan’s Harlem neighborhood. Footage obtained by the New York Post shows Simon approaching Alba at the counter and pushing him after his girlfriend’s credit card was rejected, leaving her unable to purchase a bag of chips. Notably, Alba only stabbed Simon after he was attacked and pushed against the shelf.
Fransisco Marte, the president of the Bodega and Small Business Group who put up his house to cover Alba’s bail, said Alba “was a victim in this incident and should never have been charged.”
“[Alba] became a citizen of this country, and in all those years was never involved in a crime,” Marte said.
Speaking on behalf of the United Bodegas of America, Fernando Mateo said the group’s first priority is to support their fellow community member by getting the murder charges against him dropped.
Mateo pointed out that Alba, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, has defenders across the political spectrum due to the overwhelming evidence that he acted in self-defense. Alba has a diverse array of civic groups lining up behind him, including the Yemeni American Merchant Association, Latino Restaurant Association, Chinese Chamber of Congress, and Lower East Side Chamber of Commerce.
The bodega-worker representatives leading the press conference said that they are negotiating with Bragg and that they are not currently calling for his resignation. However, Frank Garcia, the head of the National Association of Latino State Chamber of Commerce, explicitly stated that if Bragg fails to drop the charges, he should be removed from office. Under New York law, the power to remove a district attorney before his term expires lies with the governor.
Garcia argued that Bragg has no good reason to charge Alba, an assault victim who acted in self-defense, given the leniency he’s shown in dealing with felons of all stripes in his first six months in office. Alba’s defense attorney, Jason Goldman, argued that the case was “clear-cut, textbook self-defense, to a level where a jury trial is inappropriate and unwarranted”.
Bragg has presided over a steep rise in violent and other crime since taking office in January. He ran on making the criminal justice system more accommodative of low-level law-breaking and has declined to prosecute a host of even violent crimes during his time in office.
A couple of weeks ago, Bragg demonstrated particular leniency towards two women who assaulted NYPD cops by dropping the charges against one woman and downgrading the charges against the other. Bragg’s inconsistency has infuriated many New Yorkers, especially workers for small businesses and bodegas. Bragg also ran on eliminating cash bail, so his decision to seek $500,000 in bail from Alba was met with disbelief. Alba’s bail was later downgraded to $5,000.
The public outcry may be having an effect. Though he initially looked set to throw the book at Alba, Bragg said there was “absolutely” a chance that he would drop the charges when he met with bodega workers on Tuesday.
While they’re united in defending Alba, there is contention among the small business coalition about how best to prevent future attacks on their members. The Yemeni American Merchants Association is against arming bodega workers while the United Bodegas of America seeks to do just that. During the press conference, a Hispanic bodega owner shouted out that “The Second Amendment protects the right to self-defense” indicating support for increased gun ownership as a means for protection.
Alba, who has worked in bodegas for 26 years, has a family fearing for his life, including his daughter, Yulissa and son, Jeffrey.