Bronx bodega employee speaks out after hammer attack

FORDHAM, Bronx (PIX11) – It was exactly one month ago that Bronx bodega worker Oralia Abad was brutally beaten on the head with a hammer by two men.

His mother spoke for the first time and exclusively to PIX11’s Eliecer Marte about that moment that has forever scarred her and her family. Abad said she had gone to buy her daughter a dress for her middle school graduation on Saturday morning. However, after that attack, she ended up in the hospital and her daughter had to graduate without Abad. The mother also said doctors told her she was lucky not to have died.

Oralia Abad had just come home from the hospital after having some blood tests done before she came to sit with us. Tomorrow she will have surgery for a broken eye and a broken nose.

“I see double and yellow, I have a headache and I feel dizzy,” Abad said.

She said she also suffers from memory loss. Although she said she could not remember exactly what happened on the morning of June 22, Abad was brutally beaten in the face with a sledgehammer by a couple while she was working at A & D Deli Grocery on East 188 Street in the Bronx.

“When I showed my husband the face, he was very surprised. When I asked him what happened, he replied: ‘Oh, flaca, your eyes.’ When I touched it, I saw a lot of blood,” she added.

Police say the two people who attacked Abad were shoplifting and demanding their money back for a hookah they had purchased. One woman was arrested. A male suspect is still at large.

“He’s bad for the community and the 188. A lot of people say he’s bad. They’re regular customers,” Abad explained.

The 41-year-old mother of three children, including a 1-year-old boy, was taken to the emergency room at St. Barnabas Hospital, where she stayed for four days to stabilize. She plans to return to work but doesn’t know if that will be possible soon.

“I’m scared right now. I don’t like going out on the streets alone,” Abad said.

Bodega owners and employees have called on the state to invest in safety, including the $5 million that New York Governor Kathy Hochul promised these businesses back in April.

“Do you think the situation would have turned out differently if you had had a panic button?” PIX11 News asked Abad.

“Yes, I know, you have something for the help you are asking for,” she replied.

New York Mayor Eric Adams visited Abad after she was released from the hospital.

“I asked him about the buttons and he said he would try to help me.”
Abad also has medical bills to pay, including for surgery scheduled for July 23. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help her with these costs.