A Harlem fishmonger who was allegedly attacked by two brothers praised a coworker to The Post on Friday for springing into action to save him — after the pal knifed his assailants, killing one of them.
Francisco Morales, 38, an immigrant from Mexico, hailed colleague Junior Hernandez, who was initially charged with murder for Tuesday’s fatal melee over shrimp at the Fish Express Fish Market in Manhattan.
“I thank him,” said Morales — who needed staples to close the gash on his head and stitches in his lip — of Hernandez. “I have to, you know, for coming to help me.
“Junior is a person you call a good friend,” he said, describing Hernandez as a dishwasher while he is “the fish man.”
Malik Burrell, 25, was killed, and his brother, 29-year-old Robert “Bobby” Burrell, gravely wounded as they allegedly tried to swipe the seafood, triggering the deadly violence.
The charges against Hernandez were downgraded to first-degree assault — in a case eerily similar to that of bodega worker Jose Alba, who fatally stabbed an ex-con attacking him in Hamilton Heights in July.
Morales said the brothers set upon him after workers had earlier booted one of them from the store on St. Nicholas Place near Edgecombe Avenue for trying to steal seafood Tuesday night.
“I don’t know why they came to hit me. I didn’t see anything. The doctor told me they had something in their hands to break my face because they can’t break my face with their hands,” said the married Morales, adding that his wife is sick so he is carrying their financial load at the moment.
“Everything happened so fast. I only felt the pain after. I knew my head was opened, but I didn’t know how bad. I didn’t know how bad my lips were. After they put the staples in my head and the stitches in my lips, I went to the restroom. That’s when I saw how it was,” he said.
As the pair allegedly beat Morales, coworker Hernandez ran up from the back of the shop and knifed both of them, killing Malik.
Police first originally cuffed Morales when they arrived at the scene because they mistakenly thought he stabbed the brothers, Morales said.
“The police said it’s me. I don’t know why he said it’s me. They handcuffed me right away. They took me to the precinct. My head and my lips were still bleeding. They said I am not arrested, so the ambulance came and took me to the hospital,” he said.
Hernandez — who now faces the downgraded rap of assault over the violence — told The Post on Friday that he feels bad someone was killed in the fracas, echoing what he said as he was previously charged in the incident, insisting he was “sorry” and, “I didn’t mean to hurt them.”
“I feel bad about the case because that guy has a family, too,” he said Friday.
“I feel OK with my family, but I still feel down because someone passed away. I am not proud of what I did, 100%. I think about that all the time,” he said.
Morales said that when he heard about the murder charges initially being slapped on Hernandez, “I felt bad, you know.
“Junior was defending himself.”
Morales said Bobby Burrell, who is in the hospital from his stab wounds, should “go to jail.
“He came in to fight,” he said.
The victim added, “Nobody has ever hit me before.
“When they get angry, I stay away from them because I know what can happen.”
Francisco Marte, president of the city’s Bodega and Small Business Association, compared the case to Alba’s.
“They came to attack [Alba] on his job. They came to attack this guy on his job as well,” Marte said.
“So many bodegas and small business workers are being attacked because there are no consequences for the criminals!” he added.
Additional reporting by Ben Feuerherd