Tuesday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg officially withdrew the contentious murder charge against bodega employee Jose Alba, admitting that there was insufficient evidence to pursue the case that sparked widespread indignation.
The DA’s office filed a request in Manhattan Criminal Court to drop the case against the 61-year-old bodega employee after an investigation revealed it could not establish the “defendant was not justified in his use of deadly physical force.”
Bragg and his team were criticized after Alba was immediately charged with fatally stabbing 35-year-old aggressive ex-convict Austin Simon, who had assaulted Alba on July 1 inside the Hamilton Heights Grocery.
The move to drop the second-degree murder charge comes weeks after The Post covered Alba’s struggle, during which the diligent bodega employee was originally detained at Rikers Island on a hefty $250,000 bond.
Alba’s electronic ankle monitor was removed Tuesday afternoon, just hours after Judge Laurie Peterson dismissed the case formally.
According to Francisco Marte, director of the Bodega and Small Business Association, the bodega employee’s voice trembled when he learned the charges had been dropped.
