FILE:
NEW YORK (77WABC) — The Manhattan bodega worker charged with murder for fending off a violent ex-con broke his silence Monday, apologizing to the dead man’s family and saying he is “very sad” over the whole ordeal — in a report from the New York Post.
Jose Alba was charged with murder for allegedly fatally stabbing 35-year-old Austin Simon. The ex-con stormed behind the counter of the Hamilton Heights bodega after a woman he was with couldn’t pay for a bag of chips.
The clerk grabbed a knife and stabbed Simon five times in the shocking, caught-on-video melee. One video of the deadly encounter obtained by the New York Post appears to show Simon’s girlfriend also stabbing the bodega clerk in the arm. She has not been charged in the case.
Alba was arrested, charged with second-degree murder and initially held on $250,000 bail. It was reduced to a $50,000 bond.
He was released from pikers and is on home monitoring. There are calls for the D.A. to drop charges against Alba.
