New York bodega workers contend with wave of violence

Driving the news: Just in the past few weeks, a woman who worked in a bodega was hospitalized after an attack by a couple who beat her with a hammer; another person in the Bronx was stabbed and wounded; and a man died after being attacked in a Queens bodega.

Bodega owners have responded by asking authorities for more funds for protective measures in their stores.

• "I'd ask the mayor to install panic buttons," Oralia Abad Pérez, the woman attacked with a hammer, told Noticias Telemundo last week.
• Trade group United Bodegas of America has been running a pilot program to get panic buttons, which run about $3,000 yearly each, installed in at least five shops, says the group's founder, Fernando Mateo.

Zoom in: Mateo says robberies are also a growing concern for bodega workers.

• Robbery cases in New York City have increased 4.9% so far this year compared to the first half of 2023, according to the local police department.
• Since late last year, some bodega owners have formed a society to apply for gun permits and get firearms training.
• About 230 owners in New York purchased a weapon in 2023, according to United Bodegas of America.

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