New York City council members from both sides of the aisle blamed “lack of enforcement” after a CVS worker stabbed to death a serial shoplifter in Manhattan — a less than subtle dig at Manhattan’s liberal District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
The furor erupted in the hours after Scotty Enoe, 46, fatally knifed serial thief Charles Brito, 50, after being punched early Thursday, making it the latest in a disturbing string of self-defense killings in recent months.
“I’m sorry the man died. But I cannot exist in a world where we pretend that endemic theft without consequence can continue in perpetuity,” fumed Minority Leader Joe Borelli on Friday.
“Can Alvin Bragg maybe help with that? These aren’t exactly capers, he just chooses not to prosecute and we end up with vigilante justice.”
New York’s lax laws eliminated bail for most crimes, including petit larceny.
Brito, who had 16 prior arrests mostly for petit larceny, had been out free to continue his shoplifting spree when he was killed.
Council members have called for more scrutiny on shoplifting following a killing of a shoplifter at a CVS. Christopher Sadowski
City Councilwoman Kamillah Hanks, chair of the Public Safety Committee agreed that failure to prosecute retail theft is ruining the local economy, public safety and quality of life for all New Yorkers.
Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan to combat shoplifting in May. Steve Sands/NewYorkNewswire/Bauer-Griffin/Shutterstock
“Retail theft is a top concern across the City. Failure to enforce and mitigate shoplifting as a crime only leads to it becoming a more pervasive problem,” emphasized the Democrat from Staten Island.
In Queens, Democrat Councilman Robert Holden, said that District Attorney Melinda Katz had teamed up with the NYPD and local shops in three precincts to bar frequent shoplifters from stores they’ve allegedly hit under the state’s trespassing law.
Scotty Enoe, 46, knifed the 50-year-old would-be thief from trying to take off with Gatorade and creamer from a 24-hour pharmacy in [email protected]
“We have to start doing something about this retail theft because it out of control,” he said, pointing to the CVS case.
Thefts in New York state are charged as misdemeanors provided the stuff stolen was collectively worth less than $1,000 and no weapons were used — a classification that made the crimes ineligible for pre-trial detention under the state’s bail laws enacted in 2019.
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