A CVS worker charged with stabbing a serial shoplifter to death in a Times Square store has appeared in court charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
Scotty Enoe, 46, appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court in Manhattan on Friday wearing a red hoodie and a face mask, after being charged with the murder of 50-year-ole homeless man Charles Brito.
Enoe was taken into custody at the CVS store on 49th and Broadway early on Thursday morning where the alleged stabbing occurred.
It has since emerged how Brito was already set to be sentenced next week for a number of other offenses.
Brito had a lengthy rap sheet with 16 unsealed arrests, including 13 for petit larceny.
Scotty Enoe, 46, appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court in Manhattan on Friday wearing a red hoodie and a face mask after being charged with the murder of serial shoplifter Charles Brito
He would regularly target drugstores to shoplift. ‘That’s his MO, he targets CVS and Walgreens,’ police told the New York Post.
Last week he was apprehended on a petit larceny charge after stealing four Monster energy drinks and seven Starbucks Frappuccinos from a CVS store in Upper Manhattan on July 2.
He then returned to the store two hours, this time with a suitcase to make off with an even larger haul.
That time he got away with a stash of Oreos, Pepsi, M&Ms, Hershey’s Kisses and another pack of Starbucks drinks – all totaling $125.
On another occasion he ventured into a CVS in Upper Manhattan last month to steal a load of energy drinks from the fridge only to return hours later to steal more of the same.
He was charged with petit larceny charge with bail set at $5,000.
Brito was due to appear in court on Monday and sentenced to three years’ probation after he took a plea deal that combined the two earlier incidents together.
Scotty Enoe allegedly killed a 50-year-old homeless man, he has been charged with murder
In January of this year he was also accused of stealing a woman’s purse in broad daylight in Midtown Manhattan.
A day after being charged in that incident he went to a pharmacy to make off with 24 packets of toothpaste more than a dozen razors .
During Thursday’s altercation, Enoe allegedly killed Brito during a fight in the store on 49th and Broadway in the early hours of the morning.
‘The guy came in and started arguing with Scotty. Next thing you know, Scotty was on the ground. He acted in self-defense,’ the suspect’s mother, Lucille Enoe, told the Daily News.
‘When the guy threw him down and started beating him up, Scotty stabbed him’ the 72-year-old explained.
Police said the fight broke out after Enoe attempted to stop the vagrant from stealing Gatorade and a container of creamer from the Broadway and West 49th Street store at around 12:30am.
The fight took place in a CVS store on Broadway and West 49th Street store at around 12:30am on Thursday
After being punched, Enoe allegedly whipped out a knife and fatally stabbed the man in the torso.
Police were called to the scene for a reported robbery-in-progress but the stabbing had already taken place when they arrived.
Brito, who was injured, was taken by Emergency Medical Service to NYC Health and Hospitals Bellevue where he was pronounced dead.
Enoe, from Brooklyn, was taken into custody at the scene and later charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
‘It’s frustrating and depressing that my son has been charged. My son was defending himself,’ Enoe’s mother, who spoke to her son from the precinct, argued.
Brito, who was homeless, was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital, had more than a dozen previous shoplifting arrests to his name and was known to target drug stores in Upper Manhattan, sources told the New York Post.
‘That’s his MO, he targets CVS and Walgreens,’ a police source told the publication.
Enoe immigrated to the US ten years ago from Grenada, according to his mother.
His sister, who declined to give her name, told the Daily News her brother is a ‘dedicated’ person who has previously not been in trouble with law enforcement.
‘He works two jobs and he’s never been in trouble. All he does is work’ she said.
‘He goes from one job to the next, he’s dedicated to hard work and his family. He helps people’ she added.
A spokesperson for the NYPD said: ‘The investigation remains ongoing and the identity of the deceased is pending proper family notification.’
