- The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has dropped murder charges against Junior Aquino Hernandez, an employee of the Express Fish Market in Harlem, New York City, concerning the stabbing death of Malik Burrell.
- Hernandez has now been charged with one count of assault for the fatal incident and granted supervised release by Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Jay Weiner.
- The case remains confusing, and the DA’s office plans to conduct a full investigation, as both the prosecution and defense present conflicting accounts of the events leading up to the stabbing.
Junior Aquino Hernandez was temporarily exonerated of the murder charge he had received this week for stabbing to death Malik Burrell in a confusing incident on his 25th birthday at a fish market in Harlem (NYC).
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office yesterday dropped the murder charges against Aquino Hernandez, an employee of the business who according to videos and witnesses on Tuesday night, killed the young man and injured his older brother, Robert “Bobby” Burrell (29), during a fight over allegedly stolen shrimp.
Instead, the 34-year-old worker was now only charged with one count of assault for the fatal incident at the Express Fish Market business, located on St. Nicholas Place near W. 155th St. Meanwhile, the older Burrell brother, who remains hospitalized, was charged by police with burglary, breaking and entering and battery.
“At this time, we are not prepared to move forward with charges related to Malik’s death, pending a full investigation,” Assistant District Attorney Mireille Dee said last night, New York Post reported.
Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Jay Weiner granted the prosecutors’ request and granted supervised release to Aquino Hernandez, a married father of four with no prior criminal record. The NYPD had initially charged him with murder, assault, and weapons possession.
The fishmonger maintained that he had not intended to hurt anyone after his arrest Wednesday night, 24 hours after the events. “It was an accident,” he told reporters then. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt them.”
What happened remains very confusing. Prosecutors say Robert Burrell entered the store and ordered shrimp, but then tried to leave without paying after arguing with a worker, whom he punched when he followed him outside. He then apparently ran out, dropping the seafood during the fight.
About four minutes later, he returned with his Malik, and they went directly to the store’s employee-only area behind the counter. According to prosecutors, the young man began assaulting the worker who had fought with his older brother shortly before, punching him repeatedly in the face and head. Aquino Hernandez tried to separate the two, and Robert threw a chair at a third employee, a cook holding a knife.
When Aquino Hernandez could not stop the fight, he went for a kitchen knife and stabbed Malik twice in the torso, while the younger man was still punching the worker, prosecutors said. The fight between the two brothers and the three employees continued down an aisle toward the fishmonger’s exit.
When Robert pulled his injured brother out the door, Aquino Hernandez allegedly stabbed him three times in the hand and abdomen, causing him to collapse his lungs, requiring emergency surgery. “This entire incident lasted 35 seconds,” prosecutor Dee said yesterday in Manhattan Criminal Court.
“We understand the gravity of this incident,” Dee added during Aquino Hernandez’s hearing. “We fully recognize that a young man lost his life and his brother is seriously injured. Our goal is to conduct a thorough investigation.”
Malik was visiting from Baltimore for his birthday celebration. According to his family, the brothers intended to bring groceries to their grandmother’s nearby residence for dinner as a family.
“I know damn well my sons weren’t (stealing) anything,” the father of the two, Robert Burrell Sr, said Wednesday, standing on a sidewalk still stained with his son’s blood. “They don’t have to steal, they have money … My son came here to relax with his brother and enjoy his birthday, that’s all.”
All charges are mere accusations, and the persons prosecuted are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
This has similarities to the stabbing death of Austin Simon on July 1, 2022, at the hands of Jose Alba, a 61-year-old Dominican grocer, who claimed he acted in self-defense in a fight over potato chips. He was initially charged with murder, but the case was eventually dropped, and he now plans to file a multimillion-dollar lawsuit for wrongful prosecution.