A Manhattan garage attendant who was shot twice while confronting an alleged thief on the job has been charged with murder after he grabbed a gun and used it to shoot the suspect.
Night worker Moussa Diarra, 57, was slapped with assault and criminal possession of a weapon in Saturday’s incident, which occurred around 5:30 a.m.
The New York Post reported that the flight attendant saw a man staring at car windows on the second floor of a West 31st Street garage.
Believing the man was stealing, the flight attendant brought the suspect outside and asked what was in his bag.
Rather than slow down or cooperate, the man pulled out a gun.
The accident occurred in a downtown parking garage on West 31st Street in Manhattan
Both men, including the one acting in self-defense, are charged with attempted murder
Diarra lunged for the gun and it exploded, giving him a gash in the stomach and a concussion in the ear before he was able to point the firearms at the alleged robber and shoot him in the chest.
Police said the perpetrator, Charles Ruddy, 59, was also charged with attempted murder, assault and criminal possession of a weapon, as well as burglary.
The charges against Diarra have left many baffled and outraged, as they are reminiscent of the case against a Manhattan bodega clerk, Jose Alba, who was charged with murder after a fatal July 1 encounter with an angry customer who accused him of murder.
A friend of Diarra’s family was furious: “This is self-defense. The man tried to steal his business. Why would the DA want to charge him with attempted murder?” Mariam Diarra, who has nothing to do with the owner, said.
“He’s there for security. That’s literally his job, to defend his business… He takes his job seriously… There’s no place for a murder charge there.” He (the thief) has come to find him at his job with his gun, and (the servant) has to fend for himself. Himself.”
Another garage worker near Moynihan train station was shocked and disturbed by the accusations:
‘you are kidding. This is an April Fool’s Day joke, right? the person asked. “How can a diligent man be arrested for defending himself?”
This past July, it was six days before Alba was released from prison on Rikers Island, and Alvin Bragg dropped the murder charge after a public pressure campaign to do so.
The publication reported that a police officer who had been told of the attempted murder charge said, “People like Alvin Bragg have made this city unsafe and this worker is a victim standing up for himself.”
Another officer joked that the thief would have been better off being caught stealing because Bragg likely wouldn’t have pressed any sort of standing charge.
“The ironic thing is if he had just robbed the garage and got caught, Bragg would have let him go, but now he wants to charge both of them,” he said.
Both the host and the suspected robber live in Manhattan and were taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition after the incident.
The statistics paint a grim picture of the city’s efforts to tackle crime, which has soared since the pandemic
Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg has been charged with leniency in crime and failure to prosecute criminals who lead New York City’s crime statistics
An officer who discovered the charges against Diarra said: “People like Alvin Bragg have made this city unsafe and this worker is a victim standing up for himself.”
Last week, Manhattan da Prague oversaw the indictment of former President Donald Trump, an action many described as stunning political overreach from an office that often seeks to soften, not amplify, accusations.
Bragg’s complacency when it comes to street criminals is part of the reason New York City’s crime rate continues to rise despite repeated promises from the city council that the Adams administration is working to get the issue under control.
Crime statistics released in January paint a grim picture of the city’s efforts to tackle crime, which has soared since the pandemic.
The data shows that rapes, robberies, and assaults are all up from last year, reaching highs not seen in decades in both 2020 and 2021.
The rape rate — which rose in 2020 when the streets were empty and unemployment rife due to disruptions from the coronavirus — is up 7 percent, with more than 120 happening this year from last year.
Meanwhile, thefts are up a shocking 20 percent, despite recent measures taken by Adams, 62, to increase the police presence across the city.
Meanwhile, assaults and thefts across the city showed a similar uptick, with criminal assaults up 12 percent — 26,039 incidents this year compared to 22,835 incidents last year — and burglaries up 25 percent.
All other crime categories — including grand theft and auto theft — showed similar hikes except for homicide, despite the nearly three-year-old epidemic that has now begun.
