A Forest Hills man will spend nearly two decades behind bars for a 2024 beating that almost killed a 62-year-old bodega worker inside a Woodside convenience store. Court records and surveillance footage describe a ferocious attack in which the worker was punched, kicked and left unconscious, and prosecutors say the victim survived but now faces lifelong brain and facial injuries.
According to the Queens District Attorney’s Office, 31-year-old Osvel Diaz pleaded guilty earlier this summer to attempted murder in the second degree, two counts of assault in the first degree, petit larceny and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree. Prosecutors said the plea, entered before Queens Supreme Court Justice John Zoll, reflected the seriousness of the charges and the sheer brutality of what unfolded inside the store.
Surveillance video filed in court shows Diaz repeatedly striking the employee so that the back of the victim’s head slammed into a metal counter with each blow, according to QNS. The victim, identified in medical and court records as Abdul Alshawish, was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital, where doctors treated him for a brain hemorrhage, multiple facial fractures and other trauma before diagnosing a moderate traumatic brain injury and lasting cognitive impairments.
NYPD detectives and the warrants squad later tracked Diaz to his home on 62nd Drive on June 26, 2024, and took him into custody after a brief standoff that involved a three-week-old baby, who was rescued unharmed, according to amNY. Police initially booked him on a child-endangerment allegation, but prosecutors ultimately centered the case on the assault and attempted murder counts tied to the store attack.
Judge Hands Down 19-year Term
Queens Supreme Court Justice John Zoll sentenced Diaz to 19 years in prison, to be followed by five years of post-release supervision, QNS reports. The court’s decision closely tracked the devastating injuries laid out in the complaint and the charges Diaz admitted to in his guilty plea.
"This was a senseless and violent assault of a deli worker that nearly left the 62-year-old man dead," Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement, according to the Queens District Attorney’s Office. The DA’s release detailed how the barrage of blows left Alshawish with a brain hemorrhage, a fractured eye socket and other life-altering injuries.
Prosecutors said the case was handled by the office’s Major Crimes Bureau and described the 19-year term as both a direct response to the severity of the attack and a warning shot against future violence targeting small-business workers. Alshawish’s recovery is still ongoing, and authorities continue to urge anyone with footage or information about the June 17, 2024 assault to share it with investigators.
