A New York Bodega worker who apparently injured and killed a man who attacked him with a bag of potato chips in self-defense has been acquitted of murder.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg asked the judge to drop charges against Blue Moon Bodega worker Jose Alba on Tuesday, ending perhaps nearly three weeks of trials.
According to a memo filed by the District Attorney’s Office, Aruba, 61, gave Austin Simon, 35, 6 in an argument that began on July 1 after Simon’s girlfriend had trouble paying for her daughter’s food. .
After Simon’s girlfriend was denied a discount card, Aruba took her daughter’s grocery shopping off her hands.
This move angered Simon’s girlfriend, who threatened to “come here now and get up.”
Surveillance video shows Simon grabbing Aruba and pushing her into the bank behind the store counter. I heard him yell, “Come on!”
Simon then dragged Aruba behind the counter to apologize to his girlfriend’s daughter.
During the battle, Aruba grabbed a knife from the counter, stabbed Simon six times, stabbing him through the lungs, heart, and jugular vein.
Police arrested Aruba the night of the incident. Bragg initially accused Aruba of a second murder.
Bragg’s office also acknowledged Aruba’s flight risk and set bail at $250,000. The bonds later fell to $50,000 after public outcry.
Aruba spent five days in a prison on Rikers Island. There, she became infected from a puncture wound she received during the battle with Simon’s girlfriend.
Aruba’s proceedings were introduced by Mayor Eric Adams, who spoke in Bodega, Harlem, on July 7.
“There are many people who break the law. I am there for those who obey the law,” he said. “Here I saw a voter who was obeying the law in the store, and he was not to come near when he came.”
Simon’s family expressed disappointment with the decision to drop the charge.
“We are all clearly disappointed and don’t know how good it is to take the lives of unarmed people,” her cousin Kandra Simon told The New York Times.
This decision sets a dangerous precedent.
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Source: Metro
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