Alvarez said that he knew full well that things in his case could have turned out very differently.
A massive shootout in Harlem last August left Angel accused of killing one man, Luis Soto, and accused of firing at police.
"No I never did, he shot me, then cops shot me," Alvarez said.
In fact, cops shot him at least 15 times and his body was riddled with holes.
He did spend the past 6 months at Rikers until a grand jury cleared him of any wrongdoing on Wednesday.
"I had 27 holes in my body," Alvarez said.
His lawyer said normally prosecutors have only a matter of days to obtain an indictment against a defendant, but they waived Angel's rights on that matter for good reason.
"We thought in this case that more evidence was better," said Zachary Johnson, Angel's Defense Attorney.
Ultimately, with more and more witnesses coming forward, all the while Angel was hoping and trying to overcome his fear that he could have been behind bars forever.
"They accuse me of killing him, then, shooting at police, you know, you never come home," Alvarez said.
