NEW YORK — An Ecuadorian returned to his workplace on Manhattan’s Upper East Side on Wednesday, where he was stabbed three times by a customer who failed to pay for juice.
The brutal knife attack happened on April 12 around 8:30 p.m. at a juice store called juice island on Third Avenue near East 61st Street, New York police said.
Luis Morocho, the victim of the act, was returning in a wheelchair to the scene where he suffered the stabbing attack that nearly cost him his life. He didn’t have the strength to speak that day but by his presence he wanted to send a message.
“He made an appearance so that people could see the conditions he was in and for the prosecutor (to see) the conditions he was in,” said Fernando de Mateo of Bodegas Unidas de America. “We’re not even asking prosecutor Alvin Bragg for bail in this case to make sure this woman stays in jail. We have to lead by example.”
The Bodegas Unidas de America organization’s petition pressures the Manhattan district attorney’s office not to grant bail to Chala Jameson, 23, charged with the attack that was recorded by security cameras in the juice business where Morocho works.
“He is seriously ill at the moment and we brought him here so they can help us, so they can see what happened to him,” said the victim’s brother, Segundo Morocho. and it depends on one for them to do everything (for) him.
The assailant who fled with the knife had been to the scene two hours earlier and had an altercation with the victim. Having been unable to finalize the transaction to pay for a juice, the victim offered him the drink but withdrew anyway with alleged threats and vandalism of the premises.
The accused remains in police custody and faces charges of robbery and attempted murder.