Bodega owners, DA Bragg to meet on 'self-defense' stabbing

LOWER MANHATTAN (PIX11) — Bodega owners are set to meet with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Tuesday morning to discuss the controversial murder charge against Jose Alba, the bodega worker who says his stabbing of an assailant was in self-defense.

The United Bodegas of America group has called for the murder charge against Alba to be dropped, saying that he had the right to defend himself in the incident.

“Jose Alba has our full support,” group spokesman Fernando Mateo previously said. “Our city is in crisis, and at this point we are just fed-up with people robbing, looting, attacking, assaulting, killing our small business owners.”

Now, the owners will take that plea, as well as general safety concerns for their workers, directly to Bragg around 10 a.m.

Alba’s deadly run-in happened on July 1 at the Hamilton Heights bodega where he works. Police say that Alba and a female customer got into an argument after her EBT card was declined.

The woman’s boyfriend, Austin Simon, entered the store a short time later and confronted Alba behind the counter of the store, officials said.

Surveillance video shows Simon shoving Alba into a chair, then Alba fatally stabbing Simon.

Alba was arrested and charged with murder. He was then held on $250,000 bail for nearly a week, before a judge reduced the sum to $50,000 amid widespread public outcry.

During a weekend appearance on PIX on Politics, Bragg defended the charge, but said that the case remains under investigation.

“The case was brought in to us after the NYPD arrest, presented as a murder,” he said. “We maintain that charge in court.”

“We receive matters after there's been an incident and we assess, we talk to witnesses, review evidence and we are in that phase now,” Bragg continued. “We worked with defense counsel from the beginning to arrange for a bail package, so now he's not in custody as we continue to investigate this serious matter.”

Alba is due back in court on July 20.