PHOTO: Ex-con Austin Simon, 35, was caught on camera in July 2022 cornering 61-year-old clerk Alba in a dispute over chips. Alba was stabbed by Simon’s girlfriend, Tina Lee, in the melee, and fatally knifed Simon.
The murder charges were later dropped due to public pressure, but the worker was so traumatized he went back to the Dominican Republic, where he remained on Tuesday, sources said.
By Jack Morphet, Georgette Roberts and Katherine Donlevy | New York Post
Former President Donald Trump made a post-court visit Tuesday to the Manhattan bodega where clerk Jose Alba infamously stabbed an ex-con to death in self-defense two years ago — a case that drew widespread outrage after he was initially charged with murder — with the city native [yesterday] vowing to “straighten New York out.”
The Republican presidential contender stopped by 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.
“You should be allowed to have a gun. If you had a gun, you’d never get robbed, you’d never get robbed, that would be the end of it,” Trump told the bodega workers.
Ahmed told the former president that the store is still grappling with rampant crime — which appeared to shock the law-and-order politician.
“What do you do? Isn’t it crazy? Is it almost a way of doing business, you getting robbed?” Trump asked.
Ahmed agreed that criminals “would respect the store” if he kept a firearm on hand, and indicated that he would apply for one at Trump’s suggestion.
Alba’s attorney, Rich Cardinale, warned Trump, however, that using the weapon could land the workers in the same situation that his client faced in the 2022 incident: “If you use a gun and you’re defending yourself lawfully, you will go to jail.”
While the murder charges against Alba were later dropped — following growing pressure from the public — the worker was so traumatized that he went back to the Dominican Republic, where he remained on Tuesday, sources said.
“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, an immigrant from Yemen and a US citizen, told The Post ahead of Trump’s arrival.
“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,” said Ahmed, 36.
When asked by The Post how he would make bodegas safer, Trump said it would boil down to allowing the NYPD to “do their jobs.”
“Every week they’re being robbed two or three times, it’s crazy. You know what? The police can stop it but they have to be allowed to do their job,” the ex-president said.
“You have to stop crime and we’re going to let the police do their job. They have to be given back their authority. We’re making a big play New York. I love this city and it’s gotten so bad in the last three years, four years, and we’re going to straighten New York out.”
Trump also skirted questions about his own criminal trial, saying that the real crime was happening in bodegas — which he blamed on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
“Alvin Bragg does nothing, he goes after guys like Trump who did nothing wrong. Violent killers and murderers … There are hundreds of murderers all over the city, they [authorities] know who they are, and they don’t pick them up. They go after Trump.”
Marte, president of New York’s Bodega and Small Business Association, said he was grateful for Trump’s support both of small businesses and of “law and order” — but noted his group does not endorse political candidates as a rule.
“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.
In a statement, the organization said Trump’s visit “highlights just how much we have lost the way in New York” and emphasized a hope that it would inspire stricter criminal laws.
The convenience store made headlines in July 2022 when ex-con Austin Simon, 35, was caught on camera cornering 61-year-old clerk Alba in a dispute over chips.
Alba was stabbed by Simon’s girlfriend, Tina Lee, in the melee, and fatally knifed Simon.
He was charged with second-degree murder and spent close to a week behind bars until prosecutors in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office agreed to lower his $250,000 bail.
The DA’s office eventually moved to drop the charges, concluding there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that Alba “was not justified in his use of deadly physical force.”
Last year, Alba was among the witnesses who testified at a House Judiciary Committee “field hearing” about Bragg’s performance.
The hearing focused on Bragg’s approach to crime after he indicted Trump, 77, on charges related to hush money payments made to then-porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Jury selection started Monday in the Manhattan Supreme Court case.
Outside the bodega Tuesday, Trump reiterated his belief that the trial is “rigged.
“Everything is screwed up in New York and the whole world is watching,” he said.
“Every legal scholar and legal pundit said there should be no trial. There was nothing done wrong. This is all politics and it’s coming out of the White House.”
Ahmed, the store owner, seemed to agree with the former president, saying that “bad things happen to good people.”
In a statement, a spokesman for Bragg said the Alba matter “was resolved nearly two years ago, and the charges were dismissed after a thorough investigation.”
“D.A. Bragg’s top priority remains combating violent crime and the office has worked hand in hand with the NYPD to drive down overall crime in Manhattan, including double digit decreases in homicides and shootings since he took office,” the statement said. ##
Additional reporting by Olivia Land