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The owner of Munchies Bodega in Brownsville Brooklyn, Salah Ahmad, was indicted by a grand jury on assault and other charges for bludgeoning teenager Bunkless Bovian with a hammer. Bovian was placed in a medically induced coma following the incident last month, but has since been released from Brookdale University Hospital.
Initial accounts of the attack reported that Ahmad struck Bovian in the skull after a dispute over alleged shoplifting. Surveillance video later showed Ahmad coming to the aid of his nephew Hazam Kassim, who was being beaten by several teenagers behind the counter of the store where he worked.
Kassim was allegedly slashed with a razor during that attack. However, the Bovian family claims that Bunkless was attempting to break up a fight between his friends and Kassim.
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What kind of name is Bunkless? I quote Sue Simmons when I ask "What the FUCK are you doing?!?!?"
Either way, this kid deserved it. He either was involved in the slashing, or he was stupid enought to get involved in something that doesn't concern him.
Great way to learn a valuable life lesson.
damn negroids.
I think his name should be bonkless bovian - cause he survived the bonk on the head.
Seriously, how high does one need to be to name their kid "bunkless"?
And, where's Al Sharpton?
This guy was defending his family and his establishment against a group of savage urban teens, and he's facing charges? How can he be indicted for this?
The fact that Bovian's friends were attacking Kassim makes him an accessory, it doesn't matter if he was trying to break it up (which is B-S).
The lesson here is just shoot them all so they can't survive to lie to the NYPD.
gotta say, i can't believe a grand jury was this stupid. cannot believe it.
if someone's attacking my family, i'm going after him or her. if someone's attacking my family with a razor, and i have a hammer, i'm damn well using that hammer.
fuck that grand jury.
jaja07, totally correct. bunkless
Bunkless in Bodega...
get it? like sleepless in seattle... get it? ah heck, nevermind.
"savage urban teens".
Why don't you just take the next step and call them Niggers? You know you want to.
You guys are impressive..
Whatever...the point is, if you watch the video, that clerk put his hands on that kid first. From a legal perspective that's not going to do you any favors.
Ok, so lets talk about the fight and this big old group pile on of 'savage urban teens'.
The small one, I think he was wearing black sleeves with the spotted pattern on him, was the one to rumble with the clerk first. The second kid, the one that I believe got whapped with the hammer, only jumped in after that clerk was thoroughly kicking that small kids ass.
You guys have never jumped in when a friend was getting his ass kicked? Regardless of who started it, that situation is completely alien to all of you? Right, ok...so lets keep moving.
The guy with the hammer came into the store and pretty much swung on the kid without knowing what the fuck was going on. Regardless of what you racist motherfuckers think, it is NOT alright to sit there and smash someone upside the head with a hammer without knowing what the fuck was going on and if you do, you better hope that motherfucker you just hit has a weapon on him.
Ok, so lets recap:
1. Clerk hit the small kid first.
2. Bovian jumped in after the small kid was getting his ass royally kicked (stupid, but this is typically what friends do for friends).
3. Dude from outside the store comes in, pulls Bovian off the other guy tosses him aside and smashes him in the head with a hammer as he flops out of the store.
Yes, they will charge you with that.
Also, I gotta give a nod to the Gothamist staff for getting in on the ignant action that's usually reserved for the readership that posts.
He was not getting beaten by SEVERAL people, he was fighting with one guy and a second after the one guy realized that he was gonna get his ass royally kicked by Kassim.
Un fucking believable.
@ph
agreed. though i'm not surprised, gothamist boards are full of racists who jerk off to private property rights and can't write worth shit
When you swing a hammer at some one's head you should have the intent to kill- because that is likely to happen when you hit someone in the head with a hammer, either that or you need to not care if he suffers brain damage. Since the guy who hit Bunkless (yeah it's a dumb name, but so is Spear Chucker) wasn't getting attacked himself, he can't claim self defense. He didn't bother asses the situation, just came out swinging, he is lucky Bunk survived because he would probably get convicted of criminally negligent manslaughter, but I'm not a lawyer and just know this from TV shows.
There is usually a better way to handle a situation than hitting someone in the head with a hammer.
A death is not worth the loss of a few candy bars.
Also from the video it looks like there are other witnesses. Am I right?
@Ph and petefd:
First of all, I consider "urban teens" to be the juveniles who travel in packs and are generally intimidating to the surrounding citizens, whether it be on the subway or in a bodega. Sometimes they are just loud and annoying, other times they stomp you to death. It depends on what their mood is.
I have personally witnessed white, black, hispanic and indian teens behave in this fashion. I don't care what race they were; regardless of the what the footage "shows," I would take the word of a grownup store owner over a group of kids any day.
Do you think Bunkless and his pals were stopping off at the bodega on the way to library? At the risk of sounding like an elderly gentleman, these groups are generally "up to no good" and therefore considered savages in my eyes (Not you-know-whats, I won't stoop to your level and use the word).
Actually, a more careful observation recap will show this:
1) Small kid pushes the clerk first, with his body. The clerk responds more aggressively than the smaller kid, but he wasn't the first to touch.
2) It's pretty clear that the small kid wasn't the only one getting his ass royally kicked. For the last half, it's the clerk.
3) Yes, dude from outside comes in, hits, flops out. Yes, hitting on the head with a hammer is pretty severe. There were unnecessary victims in both parties, but everyone knows that there are plenty of groups and individuals who keep bodega owners and clerks terrified. The one by me recently mentioned that he was losing a lot of business because of shoplifting by teenagers, and he hadn't been doing anything about it in order to avoid trouble. To accept this reality doesn't make anyone racist.
And these "minorities" wonder why they have to travel to Fulton Street to buy crap. Why would anyone want to open up a retail store in this neighborhood?
total crap, the prosecutor and the grand jury should be publicly flogged.
Indiciting is the easy part. What's the old line, "you can indict a ham sandwich."
Actually getting a jury to convict the guy might be a whole different challenge. There's a long road to travel between what's required for an indictment and what's required for a conviction at trial.
Everyone crying foul has never worked a retail job in New York City. It's kind of scary. When I was a youngin', I worked at a notorious used bookstore in Manhattan, and was once knocked unconscious by a shoplifter wielding the Taschen 2 volume edition of the 'Complete Works of Picasso'.
You're on edge. More deli clerks get tuned up than cops every year. I do sympathize with the owner. His whole life, and his families well being, is tied up in that business. If someone is acting aggressively towards a member of your family, it's difficult not to lose it. Legally he's probably screwed.
A "Taschen 2 volume edition"? What,you were knocked out by a SOFTCOVER?
And the next time poor Bunkless Bovian gets the "Munchies", he'll probably choose another Bodega.
Ph
Several means more than two. There are clearly three kids grappling/shoving the guy. The third one from the left eventually steps back after grabbing the guy and lets his two friends do the punching.
I sympathize with the deli owner. I work in the Grand Central area and saw one group of black teens walking thru the crowds intentionally bumping into people randomly , I saw another group harass a newspaper and candy kiosk owner. The guy was some hardwarking Pakistani immigrant who came at them with an umbrella in frustration. You can see for the deli owner this kind of crap happens all the time. Police are no use, they are never around when you need 'em and there's not much they can do after the fact. You have to live with this kind of savagery in NYC. No one wants to appear philistine and make a racist remark because it's repugnant but conventional wisdom and plain sense observation shows that lower class urban teens are a persistant disruption to civil order. I will gladly debate any apologist.
agreed. though i'm not surprised, gothamist boards are full of racists who jerk off to private property rights and can't write worth shit
Oh, the irony, and the funny thing is he'll never see it.
Ph saw what he wanted to see. OTOH, I see someone defending his nephew. He could have hit all the kids, but he went after the one he saw attacking. The video clearly shows Bovian's family and friends were full of it when they earlier claimed he was "arguing with a friend" when he was hit. Bovian was obviously doing more than arguing and not with one of his friends. The owner will be found not guilty by reason of self-defense, but it will probably cost him a lot for legal bills. I want to know why Bovian and the rest of these kids weren't indicted for aggravated assault and battery, as they should be.
BTW, anybody find Ph's 180 turn interesting? Here he is being all indignant about perceived racism, yet in an earlier comment in an earlier Gothamist post on this, he wrote:
Stereotype much? "Always?" Which, of course, doesn't take into account the poor black kid who was mowed down in a school zone hit and run this week, who liked playing chess and Wii rather than hoops. From flippant dismissal to indignant outrage in a matter of weeks. Not bad.
Its called 'trolling'. Look it up.
Where's Travis Bickle when you need him?