A deli worker in posh Gramercy was slapped with felony charges for allegedly throwing a knife at an “aggressive” intruder inside the shop this week – while the store owner claimed the arrested employee was simply “trying to protect the business.”
Mahmoud Bourada, 34, flung the knife during a clash with another 34-year-old man who he’d ordered to leave the Heavenly Market where he worked on Third Avenue near East 23rd Street around 11 p.m. Tuesday, according to cops and law enforcement sources.
The blade cut the troublemaker on his left hand, but he was uncooperative with cops and refused medical attention, authorities said.
Bourada, meanwhile, was taken away in cuffs, facing charges of first-degree attempted assault and second-degree assault, according to a criminal complaint.
Ahmed Saleh, 24, who owns the deli with his father and brothers – all of whom emigrated from Yemen 20 years ago – told The Post Wednesday that Bourada “was just trying to do the right thing.”
“We’re working hard for everything because it’s a family business and nothing was given, so we have to protect that at all costs. We have to protect the business,” Saleh said. “And that’s what my employee was trying to do. He’s a good man. He was trying to protect the business so that he can have a job.”
Before the incident escalated to violence, Bourada called Saleh “panicking,” the deli owner said.
“He said the guy was being really aggressive, threatening,” Saleh said. “I told him to hang tough and I would call the cops. He called me back a minute later and said [the intruder] left.”
By the time Saleh arrived, Bourada was already in police custody at the precinct, but his phone was still lying on the floor in the store.
“I picked it up and went down to the precinct and tried to give it back to him,” Saleh said. “But they said no. I asked them, ‘Is he going home? He can’t see his child on Thanksgiving? He can’t bring the food home? This isn’t right!’”
Saleh described Bourada as a friend as well as an employee – and a father who worked to support his family.
“I’ve known him for a few months and he needed a job,” Saleh said. “He needed a job to pay for food for his kids, for medical bills for all sorts of things.”
“So I try to do the right thing – I gave him a job,” he added. “He’s a very good man. He has a very good heart. He just wants to make a living for his family and go home.”
Bourada, of Brooklyn, was cut loose in time for the holiday – with a judge releasing him on his own recognizance Wednesday evening over prosecutors’ request for $5,000 cash bail or $15,000 bond, the DA’s office said.
But hours earlier, one of the deli’s seven employees – a cook – called Saleh announcing that he was quitting over the fiasco, and because “this area is just getting too bad.”
The downturn began a year-and-a-half ago, when a shelter opened down the block, Saleh said.
“Now I have stress because they’re constantly stealing everyday and they steal everything,” the owner said. “Like this whole shelf was emptied out the other day. My employees know – I mean. it’s not going to take too long. We keep losing money and eventually they’re going to lose their jobs. They’re not going to have money to bring home and feed their families.”
“This area was beautiful,” he added. “[Now] they’re always screaming outside. They’re coming in demanding free stuff, begging for change and if they don’t get what they want, it’s trouble! It’s like we work for them. That’s what the city did – they made it so that we work for them.”
