An employee at a bodega in New York City is accused of killing an irate client, but new video footage shows that the employee attempted to calm the man before he lunged at him from behind the counter and was fatally stabbed as a result.
Following a public outcry over his murder accusations and questions over whether he was trying to protect himself, Jose Alba, 61, was released from jail last week when his bail was reduced.
Austin Simon, a career criminal 37 years old, was fatally stabbed by Alba, who is now facing second-degree murder charges.
The bodega worker was seen in video obtained by the New York Post attempting to avoid Simon in the moments before the stabbing on July 1st.
‘Papa, I don’t want a problem, papa,’ Alba calmly tells Simon as the man angrily storms into the Hamilton Heights bodega and walks around the counter to confront the clerk.
Simon charged into the Blue Moon convenience store minutes after his girlfriend tried to buy a bag of chips for her daughter but her benefits card was declined.
The woman, who claimed Alba snatched the bag of chips from the child, is heard on the video asking Alba, ‘Did you put food?’
Alba responds that he’ll try her card another time.
‘OK, mama, let me do it another time. My God,’ he says to her as she insists, ‘There’s money on there.’
But he scans the card multiple times and hands it back to her telling her it’s not working.
The edited footage cuts to show other customers in the bodega as the woman is heard yelling out of view from the camera.
‘You can’t touch my daughter. Don’t snatch that out of my daughter, you f–king piece of shit!’
The woman had reported that Alba snatched the bag of chips from her daughter’s hands when they couldn’t pay.
She continues, ‘I’m gonna bring my n– down here and he gonna f–k you up. My n— is gonna come down here right now and f–k you up!’
Alba tells her that it’s not his fault and that the card was not working.
Another woman asked, ‘Did they take something from you?’
Alba replied, ‘No, I take it back.’
Simon can then be seen on the video storming into the store and walking behind the counter where he confronts Alba.
‘What’s up with you? N—r what is wrong with you?’ he yells at him.
The video is edited and cuts to Simon already having been stabbed.
In previous footage that was released, the fight between the two men breaks out when Simon goes behind the counter and is seen pushing Alba into a chair.
Alba grabbed the store’s box cutting knife to stab him in the neck and chest. Simon later died in the hospital.
In the new video footage, it cuts to show bloody Simon splayed out on the bodega floor. His girlfriend is heard yelling, ‘That was over $3. Three f–king dollars. He snatched something out of my daughter…please help him.’
Alba was released from Rikers Island on Thursday evening after his bail was lowered from $250,000 to $50,000, and returned to his Hamilton Heights home wearing an electronic monitor and accompanied by one of his sons. He was only required to pay $5,000.
Osamah Aldhabyani, 35, who owns the bodega told The Post that he was haunted by what happened and worried about possible retaliation from Simon’s friends after, he claims that he saw two of them in a car outside the store.
‘I’m scared for my life,’ he said.
Alba’s fellow bodega workers said they will not let him return to work because they fear the victim’s friends will come to harm him.
‘We’re not letting him come back,’ a Blue Moon Convenience store worker named Wilson told the New York Post.
Wilson said his victim’s ‘friends and family’ now know where Alba works and his coworkers fear it’s a ‘death sentence’ if he returns to his post.
Wilson said he is now scared that he could face a similar situation to Alba if he were forced to protect himself.
‘Why is [Alba] getting charged? He was working. Now that makes workers even more scared. This could happen to me. We out here working. We feel scared. We have to protect ourselves,’ he told the New York Post.
‘He wasn’t looking for trouble, he was working. What is he supposed to do? That guy could have done anything…[Alba] is an old man. It’s not fair.’
Wilson also expressed fear over the growing gun problem in New York City, saying he didn’t know ‘who has a gun’ in the neighborhood. He also said that all the workers are trying to do is ‘make money and serve the community,’ not deal with violence.
‘They should consider self-defense,’ another employee Escoo told the Post. ‘We are risking our lives serving the community.’
Alba was thrown in jail and held on a $250,000 bond after prosecutors from Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s office asked for double that, despite letting other career criminals loose.
Following a resounding outrage over the decision, a Manhattan judge finally lowered Alba’s bond today and he was released to his home.
Earlier Thursday, NYC Mayor Eric Adams visited the bodega to express his support for Alba.
‘I’m a person that’s there for people following the law. I saw from the video, I saw a voter here inside the store following the law…It’s time for New Yorkers and Americans to start standing up for people who follow the law,’ he said.
Prosecutors from Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s office attempted to reduce Alba’s bond from $250,000 to $50,000 at a hearing on Thursday. He just had to put up $5,000, or 10%, and his family and boss covered the rest.
Alba is unable to leave New York City and has to give up his passport, so his previously scheduled vacation to the Dominican Republic will not be possible.
Alba’s release, though, is a little victory for the 62-year-old, who many believe should never have been detained in the first place.
Alba, who is well-liked in the town, has worked there for decades and has no criminal record.
When Simon’s girlfriend tried to purchase a bag of chips at the bodega but her card was denied, the violence occurred. Alba refused to give her the chips since her debit card had been denied.
Then, according to Alba’s relatives, she pulled a knife out of her handbag and assaulted him before requesting assistance from her boyfriend.
Simon can be seen storming into the shop wearing an expensive $350 Amiri shirt, towering over Alba, and then fighting with him.
Alba seized the box cutter from the shop and used it to stab the man in the neck and chest. Later, Simon passed away at a hospital.
The family was unable to pay the $250,000 bail that was ultimately chosen after Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s office requested a $500,000 bond, which the court last week deemed to be an excessive amount.
They created a GoFundMe page to seek money for bail and his legal defence, but GoFundMe deleted the account after it received $20,000 in donations.
A GoFundMe spokesperson told DailyMail.com: ‘Our terms of service prohibit fundraising for the legal defense of a violent crime.
‘At this time, the fundraiser has been removed and all donors have been refunded.’
Bragg’s office announced on Thursday that it had reached an agreement with the man’s family over the conditions of his bail, which include his giving up his passport and donning an electronic ankle monitor.
The DA’s office reported that the owner of the convenience store where the event occurred has also consented to serve as an obligor for him.
Alba, a Dominican Republic native who acquired US citizenship 14 years ago, was imprisoned on Rikers Island.
Republican candidate for governor Lee Zeldin was one of several who criticised Bragg for his decision to prosecute him on Thursday.
‘My first Day 1 action as Governor next January will be to fire Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg,’ he said.
Yesterday, a store worker who did not want to be named told DailyMail.com: ”The girlfriend is still out there enjoying her life.’
Regulars at the business characterised Alba as a dedicated parent who was getting ready for retirement and was eager to see his family in the Dominican Republic again the next week.
They informed DailyMail.com that he worked at the store every day of the week from noon to six in the morning in order to earn an honest income.
However, some customers have attempted to take advantage of him throughout his more than two years of employment at the store by snatching products and attempting to flee with them.
They also claimed that one individual allegedly approached him with a pistol.
Therefore, he was unaware of whether Simon had a gun and might have killed him when he started threatening him last week when he entered the store.
‘He never wanted no problem,’ said Ahmad’s son, who was working the counter on Wednesday.
‘I picture him as my grandfather being in that situation.’