NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A grand jury indicted a Brooklyn deli owner Friday on assalt and other charges after he confronted a teenage customer in April with a hammer.
The deli owner, Salah Ahmad, said he was acting to protect his relative from an attack by a group of teens. Surveillance video caught the incident on tape.
Watch the Video (Courtesy of WNBC.com)
The NYPD charged Ahmad after the incident. Ahmad and his attorneys have repeatedly said he was acting in defense of his store and family.
There was no announcement in the courtroom Friday whether others will also faces charges as a result of the confrontation in the deli.
The surveillance video, seen first on WNBC-TV, appeared to show the teen victim, identified as Bunkless Bovian, joining in with friends during an April 13 attack on 19-year-old Hazam Kassim, who was working as clerk in the Brownsville store.
The video shows deli owner Salah Ahmad, 36, rushing to help Kassim as he was pummeled by three teens. Holding a hammer, Ahmad struck Bovian on the head, sending the bleeding boy stumbling into East New York Ave.
Bovian, who's family said he was a budding basketball star, was placed in a medically induced coma after suffering a skull fracture. He has since been released from the hospital.
Relatives have insisted the teen was wrongly targeted and had been in the store only to resolve an argument between his friends and the clerk.
But, Ahmad's attorney, Gary Conroy, said the real perpetrators in the incident have yet to be arrested.
"Mr. Ahmad is not a vigilante. Mr. Ahmed was a victim in this case. And when you look at the entire videotape and you see Mr. Ahmed assaulted even after his nephew was assaulted, he did show remarkable restraint given the circumstances."
Kassim told police that the teens had been shoplifting, and they assaulted him after he took back the merchandise. Kassim said he was also slashed with a razor during the melee.
"I think that an appropriate investigation should have been done and the real perpetrators, the teenagers, should be charged," Conroy said.
Photo from 1010 WINS' Mona Rivera
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