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Should He Pay For Killing His Attacker?
Or was it understandable self-defense?
Jose Alba is a 51-year old immigrant from the Dominican Republic. He was working in a bodega in New York City when a woman apparently tried to pay for a bag of chips with her EBT card. The bodega is the Hamilton Heights grocery on Broadway.
Alba gave her the chips, but the EBT card did not have enough funds. So Alba took back the chips. The woman became upset. She knocked items off the counter and then went and got her boyfriend, 35-year old Austin Simon.
There is security camera footage that shows what happened next. It’s on Twitter; click on the link to see.
Austin Simon in the video is seen coming around the corner to Alba’s side of the counter. It shows Simon pushing Alba and intimidating him. Simon is larger, stronger, and younger than Alba.
Alba tries to get away, but Simon grabs him and prevents him from doing so. If Simon had let Alba get away, which he is trying to do, then the matter would have ended there.
Instead of letting him go, Simon continues to threaten the older man. Alba grabs a knife. The knife was apparently used by employees to open boxes. Alba stabs Simon.
Simon’s girlfriend then apparently allegedly attacked Alba, though that occurs off…
