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OAN’s Abril Elfi
5:58 PM – Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Former President Donald Trump paid a visit to the Manhattan bodega where former clerk Jose Alba had fatally stabbed a longtime criminal in self-defense after he was attacked.
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The story previously prompted a frenzy in the news, making headlines throughout a number of major networks.
On Tuesday, the former president made an appearance at the Sanaa Convenient Store, formerly known as the Blue Moon Convenient Store, in Harlem to meet with the store’s co-owner Maad Ahmed and small business advocate Francisco Marte.
“What happened to Jose was very hard for me. Jose was defending himself from the guy who came behind the counter. All for $1 worth of chips,” Ahmed told The Post before Trump’s arrival.
Although Alba’s murder charges were eventually dropped in response to mounting public pressure, the worker was so traumatized that he returned to the Dominican Republic, where he now resides, according to sources.
Ahmed expressed that the city he once loved has become extremely unsafe and that the store is still dealing with a very high rate of crime as of late.
“I have never voted, because I’ve been working, but this time I will. We need Donald Trump back in the White House because he’s a strong guy,” Ahmed asserted.
While expressing gratitude for Trump’s support of small businesses and “law and order,” Marte pointed out that his organization typically does not endorse political candidates.
“This store was where the fight against the liberal laws started, when they were charging Jose Alba with murder for defending himself. The fight against those liberals started here,” he told The Post.
The convenience store made headlines when ex-con Austin Simon, 35, was seen on camera pressuring and intimidating Alba, 61, over stealing a bag of chips in July 2022. Simon even jumped over the counter to yell at the clerk face-to-face while Simon’s girlfriend at the time pulled out a knife.
During the altercation, Simon’s girlfriend, Tina Lee, abruptly stabbed Alba and Alba attempted to push them both away before fatally stabbing Simon.
The clerk was imprisoned for nearly a week after being charged with second-degree murder.
However, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office prosecutors eventually decided to reduce his $250,000 bail after public pressure due to the news story going viral. The district attorney’s office also later decided to withdraw the prosecution altogether, saying there was insufficient evidence to support the claim that Alba “was not justified in his use of deadly physical force.”
Trump’s appearance came as Bragg has been a frequent target of his online criticism.
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