New York City bodegas pushing for 'panic buttons' to be installed in wake of deadly Inwood stabbing
INWOOD, Manhattan (WABC) -- Local bodegas are pushing for so-called "panic buttons" to be installed to help call police faster during emergencies.
The group, United Bodegas of America, gathered at Ameer Deli in Inwood on Friday afternoon.
That's where a stabbing happened Wednesday afternoon that left one person dead and two others injured.
Surveillance video shows two bodega works cramped in a corner as a deadly knife fight plays out right in front of their eyes. The bloody brawl then spills out onto the sidewalk.
The deli did not have a panic button.
It's just one of three incidents of deadly violence taking place inside of a bodega in the last three days.
There was a deadly shooting in Williamsbridge on Wednesday, and another one in the Belmont section of the Bronx on Thursday.
"We are still asking those people that we elected into office to make it mandatory that every bodega should have a panic button that's monitored live at NYPD headquarters," said United Bodegas of America spokesperson Fernando Mateo.
United Bodegas of America wants the city to install buttons at all New York City bodegas, along with real-time monitoring from the NYPD.
"Yes, we've seen results. We've installed 50 of them, but this is a city that has 25, 30,000 bodegas," Mateo said. "So, 50 is a drop in the bucket, but those 50 that have the panic buttons are in critical-needed hotspots of the city."
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