FILE:
NEW YORK (77WABC) — A group of New York city elected officials are demanding that Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg drop his case against bodega clerk Jose Alba.
The Hamilton Heights worker is charged with murder in the stabbing death of an ex-con who attacked him behind the counter over a bag of chips. According to the New York Post, the bipartisan group of city council members in a letter said Bragg’s controversial, progressive approach to law enforcement was “rewarding the guilty and punishing the innocent.”
New video obtained by the Post also shows that Alba tried to avoid the confrontation. The group also called Bragg’s handling of Alba’s case “particularly jarring” in light of his generally soft-on-crime policies and the “countless cases where defendants were allowed to plea down to lesser charges and then commit additional crimes.”
Previously released video showed Austin Simon push Alba into a chair before the two men start tussling and Simon was fatally stabbed. Alba was released from Rikers Island after his bail was lowered to $50,000.
He is under electronic monitoring and his passport is revoked.
