Lesandro "Junior" Guzman-Feliz's fatal stabbing at a bodega has rumbled throughout the Bronx. Making the death even more tragic are the circumstances surrounding his stabbing: the perpetrators say they mistook the 15-year-old for a person who allegedly circulated a teenage sex tape. The gang involved in Guzman-Feliz's death has apologized for its fatal error.
According to PIX11, several council members have gotten together to try to close the bodega.
Citizens and officials claim security footage shows workers in the bodega doing nothing to help the 15-year-old.
The assault took place outside the store; Guzman-Feliz entered wounded. A bodega employee caught on camera took one look at the teen and pointed to the door.
City council members Ritchie Torres, Vanessa Gibson and Rafael Salamanca issued a statement saying that while they don't expect bodega owners and workers to be heroes, they do expect them to try to help their fellow New Yorkers when and where they can.
"While it might be unfair to expect a business owner, untrained in law enforcement, to perform heroics in the midst of savage gang violence, the failure to do something as basic as calling 911 is morally unconscionable," the council members wrote in the joint statement.
Their statement continued: "It has long been held that one of the legal requirements for operating a business in the City of New York is good moral character," the letter read. "We are writing to express outrage over the failure of moral character that characterizes the conduct of Zesarina Grocery on the night of June 20, 2018. An owner who stands by idly while a 15-year-old is dragged out of his store and murdered in cold blood with a machete is no longer worthy of doing business in NYC."
In addition to the calls of the council members to close the business, more than 111,000 people have signed a petition calling for the same.