Donald Trump made a pit stop Tuesday at a New York City convenience store where a worker stabbed an ex-con to death in self-defense in 2022. The former president vowed to take on crime and “straighten New York out.”
The visit to Sanaa Convenient Store in Harlem came while Mr. Trump was in the city for his trial, and he met the bodega’s co-owner Maad Ahmed and small business advocate Francisco Marte.
Mr. Ahmed told the former president the store gets robbed often.
“What do you do? Isn’t it crazy? Is it almost a way of doing business, you getting robbed?” Mr. Trump asked him.
The presumptive GOP nominee added, “You should be allowed to have a gun. If you had a gun, you’d never get robbed. … That would be the end of it.”
Mr. Ahmed said maybe he would apply for a firearm.
In 2022, Jose Alba, a clerk at the bodega when it was called Blue Moon, killed ex-con Austin Simon, who had attacked him behind the counter. Mr. Alba was ultimately accused of murdering Simon and spent nearly a week at Rikers Island.
His case caused outrage locally and nationally, with people arguing that he was just defending himself and that the surveillance video showed that clearly. A judge wound up dismissing the case after the Manhattan district attorney’s office filed a motion to stop the second-degree murder charge against Mr. Alba, saying the office couldn’t prove that his use of deadly force was unjustified.
Mr. Alba’s attorney, Rich Cardinale, was present when Mr. Trump visited the store and warned him that if other bodega workers used weapons to defend themselves, they could also end up in jail.
The former president told reporters outside the store that his campaign is “making a big play for New York.”
“I love this city, and it’s gotten so bad in the last three years, four years, and we’re going to straighten New York out,” he said.
He added that police must “be given back their authority.”
Mr. Trump was in Manhattan facing 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments his former lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers say the reimbursement payments to Mr. Cohen were legal expenses and not part of a cover-up.
The first two days of the trial focused on jury selection. The court will not convene Wednesday.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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