Salah Ahmed, the owner of the Munchies Deli store in Brownsville, Brooklyn, was very surprised after he found out on Friday that he was indicted on assault charges, even though the surveillance camera from the shop proved that he had acted in self defense. The owner of the store was arrested on April 14, one day after he attacked a 15-year old boy with a hammer in the head. Bunkless Bovian ended with a fractured skull and was hospitalized for five days.

The videotape clearly showed how Bunkless and two other boys attacked one of Ahmed’s employees, 19-year-old Hazam Kassim. The owner of the store hit the boy with a hammer in the head after seeing on his security camera that the three boys were punching Kassim and were slashing him with a box cutter.

Gary Conroy, Ahmed’s attorney, is convinced that the wrong person was indicted and that it was obvious that his 36-year-old client acted in self-defense.“Mr. Ahmed was a victim in this case. And when you look at the entire videotape and you see Mr. Ahmed assaulted even after his nephew was assaulted, he did show remarkable restraint given the circumstances. If this isn’t a case of self-defense, I don’t know what is.” Moreover, David Epstein, who also represented the store owner in court said, according to The New York Times: “We weren’t cocky, but we assumed this case was going to be dropped. We thought it was a no-brainer.”

Now, that Ahmed was indicted on assault charges and a weapons possession charge he could spend some 25 years in jail if convicted. He was bailed out for $35,000.