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A New York City fishmonger was left bloody and bruised after a fight between two brothers over stolen shrimp at the Harlem Seafood Market Tuesday night.
Francisco Morales had his teeth knocked out during the ordeal, but his colleague Junior Aquino Hernández quickly rushed to his defense, grabbed a fish knife and allegedly stabbed the two brothers.
Suspect Hernandez, 34, was arrested for fatally stabbing one brother, 25-year-old Malik Burrell, and wounding the other, 29-year-old Robert ‘Bobby’ Burrell, inside the Fish Express Fish Market, located in St. Nicholas Place near Edgecombe Avenue in Sugar. Hill.
Hernandez has been charged with murder, assault and weapons possession and was awaiting his arraignment Thursday in Manhattan Criminal Court.
Malik died of his injuries and Bobby was listed in stable condition, although he suffered a punctured lung and other injuries, said his distraught father, Robert Burrell.
Hernández was quick to defend his co-worker Morales when he was being beaten, saying it was “an accident” and that he was “sorry…and he didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”
Francisco Morales, a seafood worker at the Fish Express Fish Market, shows the injuries he sustained during the fight Tuesday night that left one brother dead and another injured
Close-up of Francisco Morales’ broken lip
The suspect, Junior Aquino Hernandez, 34, is now charged with murder, assault and possession of weapons, he said it was an accident. Awaiting his arraignment Thursday, the grim-looking Hernandez said he was “sorry” and said he “didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”
The grisly scene where the stabbing occurred at the Fish Express Fish Market on St. Nicholas Place near Edgecombe Avenue in Sugar Hill around 9:45 p.m. Tuesday night.
Hernandez stabbed each of the brothers in the torso, police said.
They were rushed to Harlem Hospital, where Malik was pronounced dead and Bobby is listed in stable condition.
His devastated father said that Tuesday, the day his son Malik died, was his birthday. ‘My babies!’ Burrell sobbed.
She said her son, Bobby, was at the fish market buying shrimp for his grandmother to cook for a celebratory meal they were planning.
“My kids were good kids, they didn’t get in trouble, they’re not hardcore criminals,” Burrell told The New York Post. ‘I’m crushed man, I’m hurt. I can’t believe my son was killed for some shrimp. They killed my baby on his birthday.
He also denied that the children tried to shoplift, claiming that no one in the family needs to steal to get food.
The heartbroken father said Malik was a high school football legend and had worked with him at his tire shop.
Junior Aquino Hernandez appears in Manhattan Criminal Court
Policemen inside the fish market after fatal stabbing
Injuries of Francisco Morales
She said her son only moved to New York from Baltimore just weeks after he broke up with his girlfriend. He said his son didn’t have a criminal record and didn’t run with bad people, but he was a good boy.
His other son, Bobby, lives in New York with his wife and two children.
The deadly fight started when one of the brothers tried to steal the shellfish, police said, which was captured on the store’s security camera.
After the alleged robbery, the brothers left the store but later got into a fight with the worker, identified as Francisco Morales.
Police said Malik was the couple’s assailant. the new york post office informed.
Pedro Laza, 60, of Harlem, witnessed Bobby allegedly attempting to steal. “The guy tried to stuff a lobster down his pants,” he told The Post.
He also said that he took shrimp out of his pants and when he tried to put them back the workers began to regret it, Laza said.
A man he called ‘Junior’ then came out with a meat cleaver and started stabbing him and didn’t stop.
“Nobody stopped him stabbing,” Laza said. It was like a machine.
The boy’s father said his son did not have any weapons. They came to my children with weapons. You see who is dead and who is bleeding in the hospital,” Robert said. They are trying to cover themselves.
Zaimar Eusebio, mother of Bobby Burrell’s daughter, saw the excruciating injuries Malik sustained. “All of his stomach was out,” she said.
She said Malik was still alive and was trying to talk on the phone when she arrived, and she was telling him, ‘keep your eyes open,’ as she cried.
Suspect Hernandez, 34, was arrested for fatally stabbing one brother, 25-year-old Malik Burrell, and wounding the other, 29-year-old Robert ‘Bobby’ Burrell.