A customer is dead, and a bodega worker is facing murder charges for killing the man during a dispute over potato chips.
On Friday night, shortly after 11:00 p.m. Jose Alba, of Blue Moon Convenience Store on Broadway in Hamilton Heights, New York City, got into an argument with a woman inside his store. The two reportedly exchanged words because she didn’t have enough money to pay for a bag of potato chips. The woman left and called 37-year-old Austin Simon to the store, though it is unclear if he was already outside the bodega or if he came there after learning of the verbal exchange. It also remains unknown what Simon’s relationship was with the identified woman. Once inside, Simon argued with Alba, and at some point, he went around the counter and began physically attacking Alba. The 51-year-old store clerk retrieved a knife and stabbed Simon once in the neck and twice in the chest.
When first responders arrived, they located Simon suffering from stab wounds. He was rushed to Harlem Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Alba was questioned and subsequently charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon, though it appeared that he initially acted in self-defense. Police located the knife used in the killing at the bodega.
