The family of a serial shoplifter who was stabbed to death by a worker at a Midtown CVS this week said they tried to get the victim off drugs, to no avail.

Charles Brito, seen in a newly surfaced mugshot from a past arrest, was killed Thursday after a confrontation with CVS employee Scotty Enoe at the store.

Enoe, charged with fatally knifing Brito allegedly told cops he did it out of self-defense after Brito began pummeling him in an unprovoked attack.

“I tried to help him and advise him and everybody prayed for him, but he continued doing drugs,” Brito’s heartbroken dad, Juan Brito, 75, told The Post from Florida.

Brito, 50, was swiping Gatorade and a container of creamer from the store when the confrontation with Enoe, 46, ensued, according to Enoe’s lawyer and police sources.

The elder Brito said he hadn’t spoken to his son recently but had occasionally wired him money.

Charles would go to his dad’s apartment in New Jersey for food or clothes, the father said.

“The life he was living is a tragedy.”

Enoe, who suffers from sickle cell anemia and has no prior criminal history, had run-ins with Brito before, his lawyer said.

He is charged with murder, manslaughter and two counts of weapons possession. Cops allegedly found a blood-soaked folding knife and brass knuckles on him. Bail was set at $100,000.

His flustered mom, Lucille Enoe, told The Post her family “can’t afford” bail and she needs to get her son his medication. “That is what is keeping him alive. He has to take it everyday. It’s at his sister’s house.  Without it he is going to get sick instantly,” she explained. “He doesn’t have access to the phone. I tried calling him yesterday but I didn’t get through to him. I am going to try again today.”

The mom said it “wasn’t the first time” Brito confronted her son.

“It’s hurting me a lot. I try to be strong. I have to make myself strong for him,” she said, adding, “I wish for them to drop the charges.”