NYC Bodega Worker Jose Alba Sues Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg For Racial Discrimination

Bodega owner Jose Alba filed a lawsuit against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the NYPD for racial discrimination.

In July 2022, Alvin Bragg charged 52-year-old Jose Alba with murder when he clearly acted in self-defense.

Jose Alba was thrown into Rikers Island jail for nearly a week after he stabbed his attacker several times in self-defense.

Jennifer Sigall, the Assistant DA under Alvin Bragg said the prosecutor’s office could “not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was not justified in his use of deadly physical force.”

The murder charge was ultimately dropped and now Alba is suing Bragg for racial discrimination.

Alba is seeking unspecified punitive damages.

The New York Post reported:

A former bodega clerk who was infamously charged with murder after fatally stabbing an attacker in his store last year in what he claimed was self-defense is suing lefty Manhattan District Attorney Alvin and the New York City Police Department for racial discrimination.

Former clerk Jose Alba, who stabbed ex-con Austin Simon to death during a fight at the Blue Moon bodega in Harlem in July 2022, claims he was hit with second-degree murder charges and endured days under lockup on Rikers Island because of Bragg’s pursuit of “racial equity” in the Manhattan criminal justice system, according to the Manhattan Federal Court suit filed Friday.

“While in theory, Bragg’s ‘racial equity’ policies are a well-intentioned attempt by him to implement even-handed justice, the means and methods employed by Bragg have instead had an opposite effect and resulted in discrimination against certain defendants based on race,” states the suit, which also names NYPD Detective William Garcia along with unnamed arresting officers and police detectives.

Here’s the backstory:

Alba fatally stabbed Austin Simon, 35, a career criminal who violently attacked him behind the counter a couple weeks ago.

According to reports, Austin Simon’s girlfriend got into an argument with Alba after her EBT card was declined when she tried to purchase a bag of chips.

The disgruntled woman then left the bodega, ran home and returned with her boyfriend – and that’s when the confrontation escalated.

According to Alba’s defense lawyer, the 32-year-old woman took a knife out of her purse and stabbed the bodega worker in the shoulder, the New York Post reported.

She is not facing charges for stabbing Jose Alba – But Jose Alba was charged with second-degree murder for fatally stabbing Austin Simon – AFTER the assailants stabbed him and violently attacked him.

WATCH:

NYC Bodega worker (Jose Alba) is attacked by an irate customer (Austin Simon). He kills him in self defense and is now being charged with murder and held on $250K bail he can’t afford. pic.twitter.com/OYjI8S4Ye5

— Stefanie Kammerman/The Stock Whisperer (@VolumePrintcess) July 7, 2022