NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump planned to meet with bodega workers in Manhattan after his second day in court Tuesday.
Secret Service and the NYPD had the area surrounded West 139th Street locked down. The whole neighborhood stood for hours awaiting the former president’s arrival.
The location of the meeting was significant.
Two years ago at the Hamilton Heights bodega, then-clerk Jose Alba was charged with murdering a man behind the counter.
CBS New York was the first news station to interview Alba in 2022 after he was charged, when he said he was acting in self-defense. According to Alba, Austin Simon came behind the counter and started to fight Alba after Simon’s girlfriend’s credit card was declined. Alba then allegedly fatally stabbed Simon with a box cutter.
Alba said he suffered two stab wounds himself in the fight. He spent five days on Rikers Island until a judge lowered his bail.
After public outcry, District Attorney Alvin Bragg dropped the charges against Alba.
Trump is scheduled to speak Tuesday with several local bodega owners and the president of the bodega association about crime and inflation.
CBS New York’s Ali Bauman asked the bodega association president what he expected ahead of the meeting.
“I’m just going to thank him for supporting the bodega and small business group, that we really appreciate that, and I hope that we can do the same thing to Biden, to Joe Biden, to come to the bodega, and we would really appreciate the same thing,” Francisco Marte said.
CBS New York was told Alba would not actually be at the meeting himself, and that he no longer works at the bodega and is currently in his native Dominican Republic and could not make it back in time.
