Trump visits Manhattan bodega where employee killed man in 2022 stabbing

MANHATTAN, N.Y. (PIX11) – Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday visited a Manhattan bodega where a worker killed a man in what officials argued was a case of self-defense.

Trump stopped by the Sanaa Convenience Store on 139th Street and Broadway after the second day of his hush money trial in Lower Manhattan wrapped up Tuesday evening.

Trump met with bodega workers to discuss what they say is rising crime impacting their businesses. Trump vowed to bring resources to combat crime if he wins the 2024 presidential election.

“We’ll work with the mayor and we’ll work with the governor and we’ll bring in a lot of federal money, but we have to straighten our New York,” Trump said.

Jury selection continued Tuesday afternoon in the case regarding alleged payments made ahead of the 2016 presidential election . Trump is required to be in court four days a week, and the trial could last up to eight weeks.

Trump is the first former president to stand trial in a criminal case.

Trump’s post-trial pit-stop was related to his 2024 presidential run. He met with bodega owner Maad Ahmed, President of the Bodega Association Francisco Marte, Fine Fare Foods owner Carlos Collado, and Gavin Wax, the president of the New York Young Republican Club. The group discussed crime and inflation.

Political analyst Basil Smikle told PIX11 that Trump’s visit could be his way of trying to resonate with voters in the community.

“This sort of very localized campaigning is always very valuable. Not everybody’s good at it, but he’s hoping that this tends to wrest some of the narrative away from Democrats about why he’s on trial to say ‘I am being persecuted and I’m doing this for you,’ which has been his larger campaign messages to bigger audiences. Now he wants to take it to smaller audiences closer to their homes,” Smikle said.

The circumstances surrounding the Hamilton Heights bodega stabbing sparked public outcry in 2022.

The violence started on July 1, 2022, when bodega employee Jose Alba got into an argument with a woman at his store, police said at the time. The woman’s boyfriend entered the store, got behind the counter, and pushed Alba before the bodega worker stabbed the boyfriend — Austin Simon, 37 — multiple times, according to the NYPD and a criminal complaint.

Alba was initially charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon, but Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg later dismissed the murder charge .

Mayor Eric Adams, along with many local residents, defended the bodega worker.

“This hard-working New Yorker was doing his job and someone aggressively went behind the counter to attack him,” Adams said at the time. “I support hard-working, innocent people [who] are doing their job.”

Bragg’s office suggested Alba had acted in self-defense.

“Following an investigation, the People have determined that we cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was not justified in his use of deadly physical force,” wrote Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sigall in a 2022 motion to dismiss the charge.

Trump has been openly critical of Bragg and his policies, calling him a “thug” and “degenerate psychopath.”

Emily Rahhal is a digital reporter from Los Angeles who has covered local news for years. She has been with PIX11 since 2024. See more of her work here and follow her on Twitter .

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.