The embattled bodega worker facing murder charges for fighting off an assailant is suffering from stab wounds he sustained during the attack and they may be infected after his stint on Rikers Island, the founder of the Bodega and Small Business Group said Friday.
Jose Alba, who was sprung from the notorious jail complex on Thursday, was stabbed twice in each arm — allegedly by his assailants girlfriend — during the attack and the wounds weren’t properly tended to while he was locked up, said Francisco Marte.
“He was cleaning it with hot water, that’s all he has there,” Marte told reporters outside of Alba’s Hamilton Heights home.
Jose Alba showing Francisco Marte one of his wounds. Francisco Marte
Jose Alba shows injuries he sustained from the bodega attack. Robert Miller“They didn’t give him the most attention.”
Marte said Alba, 61, is happy to be home but is “weak” from the injuries.
“He’s doing OK. He feels better that he’s home but he is in pain. The injuries like these [are] open,” said Marte.
Alba’s roommate, who identified himself as Tony, told The Post Friday night that the bodega worker hasn’t spoken about last week’s attack since returning from jail on Thursday.
“I don’t talk to him because I think he needs personal space,” said Tony, who’s lived with Alba for the past seven months.
“He’s not a bad person, you know,” Tony said of Alba. “He works every day, every night. I think when people die it’s not good but it was his life or [Simon’s] life. The other guy is a bad person.”
Last Friday, Alba was working behind the counter at the Blue Moon convenient store in Hamilton Heights when he got into an argument with a woman after she had trouble paying for a bag of chips and asked if she could open a tab.
When Alba declined, the woman’s boyfriend, Austin Simon, 35, came to the store, went behind the counter and attacked him, video shows.
As the worker tried to fight him off, he stabbed Simon five times. At some point, Simon’s girlfriend allegedly pulled a knife from her purse and jumped into the fray, stabbing Alba several times in the shoulder and hand, his attorney said previously.
Alba and his relatives have insisted his actions were in “self defense” and have questioned why Simon’s girlfriend hasn’t been arrested in connection with the incident.
“You can see he was attacked by two people. He is a weak man. He’s not a tough guy. He was lucky,” said Marte.
Jose Alba was held at Rikers following the attack. Christopher Sadowski
The incident took place at Blue Moon convenient store.
“He was blocking because if he hadn’t, they would have been the other way around so we got to support him, we gotta support him. I asked everyone let’s keep supporting him. He’s an innocent man. The problems came to him. He didn’t go to the problems.”
