(New York Post) A Manhattan bodega worker charged with murder tried to avoid the confrontation that led to him being thrown behind bars after he fatally stabbed a customer, new video shows.
“Papa, I don’t want a problem, papa,” Jose Alba, 61, calmly tells an angry Austin Simon as the man walks behind the Hamilton Heights deli counter, the footage reveals.
The video obtained by The Post reveals for the first time the words exchanged between Alba and Simon before the fatal encounter that set off a public outcry about whether the clerk, who is facing murder charges, was trying to defend himself.
Simon, 35, stormed into the Blue Moon convenience store on July 1, five minutes after his girlfriend tried to buy a bag of chips for her daughter and her electronic benefits card was declined. The woman contended Alba snatched the snack from the girl.
“Did you put food?” the girlfriend can be heard on video asking Alba about how he rang up the sale.
“OK, mama, let me do it another time. My God,” Alba says.
“There’s money on there,” she insists.
The footage, which was edited, then cuts to other customers, and the woman yells from off camera, “You can’t touch my daughter. Don’t snatch that out of my daughter, you f–king piece of shit!”
Alba is not seen in the footage taking away the chips.
The woman goes on to say “I’m gonna bring my n– down here and he gonna f–k you up. My n— is gonna come down here right now and f–k you up!”
Alba says “That’s not my fault, it’s not working.” He continues to ring up sales, telling one customer of the girlfriend, “She don’t have money.”
Another woman asked, “Did they take something from you?”
