After a 21-year-old clerk at a Queens bodega was released without charges following the fatal stabbing of a shoplifter who swiped a beer from his store, the victim’s mother is calling on prosecutors to pursue the case.
The Queens district attorney’s office confirmed that the worker at the Mini Mart on Queens Blvd near 64th Road in Rego Park has been freed as it continued its probe into the late-night clash.
The clerk, identified by United Bodegas of America as Netesh Netesh, was behind the counter in the shop about 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday when 21-year-old customer Dylan Marino came in, swiped a beer from the fridge and left, cops said.
“He stole one can of beer,” Marino’s mother, who asked not to be named, told the Daily News. “One beer.”
Netesh followed the man outside and demanded he return the stolen item, sparking a violent fight between the two men on the sidewalk, cops said.
“They were out in the street and my son turned around,” the mom said. “I’ve talked to an attorney [and] that is not a threat, to turn around.”
During the brawl, Netesh stabbed the would-be shoplifter with a pocketknife, Fernando Mateo of the United Bodegas of America said at a news conference outside the store Wednesday.
“He did not leave this bodega to murder anyone,” Mateo said. “He was robbed. He came out to claim what he believed was his [and] he was attacked. His life was in danger and he had a pocketknife which we believe he used to defend himself.”
Marino’s mother rejected the self-defense claim.
“[Netesh] followed him out, he killed him in the street,” said the devastated woman. “[Marino] wasn’t armed, the cops are telling me that, and I know my son, I know for a fact he didn’t have weapon. He was unarmed.”
“That is not self-defense,” she repeated. “Murdered over one beer in cold blood.”
Marino suffered a stab wound to the chest during the fight, cops said. Witnesses spotted him on the block a few minutes later bleeding out as he clung to a pole.
“He kind of stumbled to the side when he saw us coming,” Irene Martinez-Schober, 40, told The News on Tuesday. “Then he was sitting on the floor and he put his hand out. It was bloody. He couldn’t even speak. When I put my hand on his belly to see if I can apply pressure and there was no blood coming out. He had already lost so much blood. He already bled out.”
EMS rushed Marino to Elmhurst Hospital Center, where he died.
Netesh was taken into custody at the scene and released without charges about 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday after questioning.
“This is an ongoing investigation and we have no comment,” Queens district attorney spokesman Brendan Brosh said Wednesday.
Marino’s mother has been in a state of shock since both her son’s death and the district attorney’s decision not to prosecute Netesh.
“[I also want] to get the bodega association to stop smearing my son’s image and to tell the truth that it was cold-ass murder,” she said. “He was murdered. I’m disrespectfully asking the bodega association to shut up.”
Mateo, however, celebrated Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz’s decision not to immediately charge Netesh.
“District attorneys and the police and NYPD do not release murderers,” he said. “Experience tells us that this was a justifiable homicide.”
Netesh is related to the Mini Mart owner and has never been in trouble with the law before, said Mateo, who hasn’t spoken to the young clerk but has been in contact with his family.
“They’re very nervous because of what happened,” Mateo said. “They don’t know whether the deceased’s family and friends are going to come and retaliate. So they’re a bit nervous.”
The victim’s mom wants the bodega shut down.
“I want it never to open again,” she said. “I want that store closed forever. I want it closed. That’s what I want for retribution. I want it put out of business.”
Netesh “is still in shock,” Mateo said.
“I’m sorry for his suffering, I understand that this is hard for him, too,” the victim’s mother said of the clerk. “I have compassion for his soul, but my child is dead and he’s out there.”
The grieving mother remembered her son as a “very sweet kid” who made music videos in his spare time.
“He was awesome,” she said. “He was a good kid.”
Marino had three prior arrests in the city.
Most recently, he was nabbed for stealing $40 worth of merchandise from a Brooklyn grocery store on March 27, cops said.
He was also charged with assault in March 2023 and attempted robbery in October, they added.
Tuesday’s clash was hauntingly similar to a fatal 2022 stabbing at a Harlem bodega in which worker Jose Alba was arrested for stabbing an irate customer. Alba was ultimately cleared in the deadly incident.
At the beginning of his hush money trial last month, former President Donald Trump visited the bodega where the two-year-old clash took place, but Alba, 64, was a no-show.
The back-to-back killings show that bodega workers are “prepared to do whatever we need to do to protect our lives and protect our businesses,” Mateo said.
