A CVS worker charged with stabbing a serial shoplifter to death during a fight inside a Midtown Manhattan store was only acting in self-defense — and is a dedicated employee who has taken on multiple jobs while battling a chronic illness, his family and friends claim.
Scotty Enoe, 46, is accused of fatally knifing the 50-year-old homeless man after the alleged thief socked him in the face inside the drugstore at Broadway and West 49th Street early Thursday, cops and sources said.
“The guy came in and started arguing with Scotty. Next thing you know, Scotty was on the ground. He acted in self-defense,” the employee’s mom, Lucille Enoe, 72, told the Daily News.
“When the guy threw him down and started beating him up, Scotty stabbed him.”
The fatal scuffle broke out after Enoe had tried to stop the alleged would-be thief from trying to take off with Gatorade and a container of creamer just before 12:30 a.m., according to police and sources.
After being punched, Enoe allegedly whipped out a knife and stabbed the man in the torso.
Police responded to reports of a robbery in progress, but the stabbing had already unfolded.
“I feel very sad about the man even though he attacked my son,” Enoe’s mom, who said her son called her from the precinct, told the outlet.
“I feel sad that he died.”
Enoe, of Brooklyn, was taken into custody at the scene and escorted to Mount Sinai West with contusions to the face, a source said.
He was later taken to the precinct and 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,” his mom said.
Enoe’s sister, who didn’t give her name, added: “This guy attacked him. My brother is a good person. In a situation like that, he would defend himself.”
The CVS employee, who emigrated from Grenada a decade ago, is a dedicated worker who has multiple jobs, his relatives said.
“He works two jobs and he’s never been in trouble. All he does is work. He goes from one job to the next,” his sister said.
“He suffers from sickle cell anemia really fiercely and he still goes to work,” his friend, Wayne Augustine, added.
Once in custody, the worker asked for a lawyer and wouldn’t make any statements to cops, law enforcement sources said.
The homeless man, who was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital, had more than a dozen previous shoplifting arrests to his name and was known to target drugstores in Upper Manhattan, according to sources.
“That’s his MO, he targets CVS and Walgreens,” a police source said.
The CVS fatal saga is the third apparent vigilante slay in the Big Apple in as many months.
Ex-Marine Daniel Penny was arrested – and has since pleaded not guilty to manslaughter – over Jordan Neely’s subway chokehold death on an F train on May 1.
Meanwhile, Jordan Williams – a 20-year-old straphanger – had his manslaughter charges dropped by a grand jury after he was charged with stabbing ex-con Devictor Ouedraogo to death during a melee on a Brooklyn J train on June 12.
By Emily Crane and Larry Celona
