LET HIM OUT

Murder Charges Dropped Against Deli Worker Who Fatally Stabbed Attacker

Jose Alba has spent five days locked up on Rikers Island for fatally stabbing a man who attacked him behind the counter at the deli.

The Manhattan district attorney has requested a motion to dismiss the murder charge against Jose Alba, who knifed another man five times in what he claims was self-defense. New York Mayor Eric Adams also defended 61-year-old Alba, saying he was “doing his job and someone aggressively went behind the counter to attack him.” The New York Daily News reports that Alba was working a deli counter on July 1 when 34-year-old Austin Simon shoved Alba into a chair, causing him to crash into a wall of products. Simon then tried to drag Alba toward his girlfriend’s daughter on the other side of the counter, seemingly to make Alba apologize for taking away a bag of chips Simon’s girlfriend couldn’t pay for with her benefits card. Alba then grabbed a knife and stabbed Simon five times, while Simon’s girlfriend stabbed Alba once as well. The incident was caught on two security cameras, and Alba was sent to Rikers Island afterward for five days, where his stab wound became infected, his supporters claimed.