One of the brothers stabbed during a fight at a Harlem fish shop was hit with criminal charges — as the worker who allegedly injured him and killed his sibling maintained he didn’t mean to hurt anyone.

Junior Aquino Hernandez, 34, insisted the fatal stabbing was just an accident as he was led out of Manhattan’s 30th Precinct stationhouse late Wednesday after being charged with murder, assault and weapons possession.

“I’m sorry,” a glum-looking Hernandez told reporters. “I didn’t mean to hurt them.”

Hernandez, who was awaiting arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Thursday, is charged with stabbing brothers Malik Burrell, 25, and Robert “Bobby” Burrell, 29, during a brawl at the Fish Express Fish Market on St. Nicholas Place around 9:45 p.m. on Tuesday.

The younger man died from his wounds, while his older brother was hospitalized in stable condition.

Cops on Wednesday night charged the hospitalized brother, Bobby Burrell, with robbery, burglary and assault for his alleged role in the brawl, the NYPD said Thursday.

Burrell, of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, has two prior arrests in the Big Apple, a felony assault rap on 2019 and a marijuana possession charge in 2016, police said.

Police said Hernandez did not have any prior arrests.

“I do believe he was defending himself,” Hernandez’s wife, Estephanie Reyes, told The Post on Thursday. “I believe he was in a situation where it was his life or the other person’s life, or he wouldn’t have done this.

“I cried,” she said. “I haven’t slept. That’s something out of character for him. It’s hard to process what’s going on and I have four children to take care of.”

The couple has four children, including a month-old boy.

“I want them to drop the charges,” said Hernandez’s sister, Eneliza Suarez. “I think it’s wrong that he is in jail for defending himself. He is not a murderer. He wasn’t the one looking for trouble.

“It could’ve gone the other way,” she said. “They could have killed him.”

The deadly scuffle allegedly began when Hernandez confronted one of the brothers he thought was stealing shrimp from the store.

According to a high-ranking police source, the brother slugged an employee and ran out of the fish market — only to return shortly with his sibling,

The pair allegedly got into a second fight with employees at the store — which is when Hernandez allegedly pulled out a work knife and stabbed both brothers in the abdomen, killing Malik Burrell, police said.

In an interview with The Post Wednesday, the brothers’ grief-stricken father, Robert Burrell, said the boy were buying shrimp for a birthday meal for his younger son.

“I know damn well my sons aren’t stealing nothing,” he said. “They have money. They have money on their cash app and they had money in their pocket.

“It’s crazy that they say he try to steal.”

But Manuel Perez, the manager of the fish market, said Hernandez was a hard-working employee who has never been in trouble — and was merely defending himself and the staff when he wielded the knife. 

“It is not fair that someone be charged with serious crimes for defending themselves and their workplace against robbery,” Perez, 58, told The Post. 

“The store was robbed,” he said. “He came back with somebody else. The door was locked but they broke the door and started hitting one of the employees that took the shrimp from them.

“They broke his face, his mouth, he was in really bad shape,” Perez said. “Junior took the knife and the fight got really bad and he had to stab the two guys who came in and were hitting him.” 

He said he felt bad for Burrell’s family, “but they came back to fight.”

Perez, whose brother owns the store, said hostility against the Dominican-run shop has forced them to shut down because of safety concerns. 

He said they tried to reopen on Wednesday but had to shut down and have his employees escorted away by police for their safety.