Earlier this month, word of a fatal stabbing at a New York City bodega took the world by storm after 61-year-old employee Jose Alba was charged with murder in the death of 35-year-old Austin Simon.
In case you missed it, the younger man entered the shop on July 1, just minutes after his girlfriend had left due to not being able to pay for a bag of chips. A new report from the New York Post reveals that, at the time of the altercation, the woman told Alba that her boyfriend was going to "come down here right now and f*ck [him] up."
Simon did come indeed, and proceeded to throw Alba up against a wall, corner him, and grab his collar – generally inspiring a deep fear within the employee as to what could be next for him.
As the younger man (who had a criminal history) continued to berate and attack Alba, the 61-year-old took action to defend himself, eventually fatally stabbing Simon before he got too out of control.
Motions related to the case revealed earlier today state, "It is a crime in New York to use physical force to intentionally restrict a person’s movements by moving him from one place to another or by confining him."
"If Alba reasonably believed that Simon was committing or attempting to commit a burglary of an occupied building, then Alba was permitted to use deadly physical force upon Simon if Alba reasonably believed it to be necessary to prevent or terminate the commission of the burglary."
After he was released on a lowered bail of $50K, the District Attorney's office has since decided to drop the charges against Alba, seeing as "a homicide case could not be proven at trial beyond a reasonable doubt."
Both NY Mayor Eric Adams and the Hamilton Heights Grocery store owner were pleased with today's verdict. "I think in this case we had an innocent, hard-working New Yorker that was doing his job and someone was extremely aggressive towards him. I believe that after the DA’s review, the DA, in my opinion, made the right decision," the former said.
[Via]