Video shows the employee - 51-year-old Jose Alba - sitting behind a counter at the Hamilton Heights grocery store, tending to customers on Friday night.

A man then pushed Alba into a shelf and appears to confront him, before yelling at another customer trying to purchase something.

He then pulls Alba up out of the chair, at which point Alba reaches to the right toward shelves displaying an assortment of candy, and pulls out a large knife, which he allegedly plunges into the man's neck and chest at least five times.

The two could be seen struggling off-camera as blood splatters across the victim's white t-shirt and along Alba's arms.



According to the NYPD, the incident began at around 11pm on Friday after a woman entered the store with her 10-year-old daughter to buy several items.

But the woman's EBT card was declined, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the Daily News, and Alba reached over the counter to take the snacks away from the girl. At that point the woman became enraged and summoned Simon - her boyfriend.

'The lady threw everything from the counter and the machine too,' Maad Ahmad, the owner of the Blue Moon Convenient Store told the Daily News, referring to the card reader. 'She said, 'I'm going to get my man, and he's going to get you,'' he claimed.

Simon then walked around the counter and confronted Alba - leading to the confrontation caught on surveillance footage.

'He grabbed Jose by the neck and tried to get him to apologize to the girl,' Ahmad said, adding: 'He pushed Jose first, Jose was just defending himself.

'Jose said 'I don't want any problems.'' But allegedly, he wound up stabbing Simon at least five times.

According to police records, Alba told officers on the scene: 'He wanted me to come apologize to the girl. I took the knife we use to open boxes, and I stabbed him.'

Court documents also claim that Simon's girlfriend took a knife out of her purse and stabbed Alba in the arm, but she is not being charged.

Locals demand he's released from Rikers Island where he is held on $250,000 bond
sos & sos