New Yorkers have rallied behind an immigrant taxi driver who died on Saturday in what police described as an assault by passengers who had refused to pay their fare.
Kutin Gyimah, a 52-year-old father of 4 initially from Ghana, was dropping off a gaggle of 5 close to Rockaway Beach in New York City round 6.20am after they tried to rob him, in response to the New York Police Department (NYPD).
The former accountant tried to chase them down, just for one in all them to knock him to the bottom the place he cracked his cranium and misplaced consciousness, police mentioned.
He was then discovered mendacity within the roadway close to a playground with trauma to the again of his head, and was pronounced useless at St John’s Hospital. The NYPD is investigating his demise as a murder.
On Sunday, the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers introduced a $15,000 reward for any data resulting in the attackers’ arrest, whereas a GoFundMe web page created for Gyimah’s household by his colleague Spyros Drakos had raised greater than $50,000 as of Sunday afternoon.
“I need justice for my husband because he doesn’t deserve to die this way,” mentioned Gyimah’s widow Abigail Barwuah at a press convention that morning, reportedly weeping as she spoke.
“He didn’t rest throughout the pandemic – he was working. He was a good, good man. He was my backbone.”
Ms Barwuah appeared alongside the couple’s two older children, aged seven and eight, who also cried, as well as more than a dozen friends, relatives, and other taxi drivers.
Gyimah’s best friend Samuel Ayebi described how he had picked Gyimah up from the airport when he first arrived in the US 18 years ago, before introducing him to the taxi business.
NYPD commissioner Keechant Sewell said: “Kutin Gyimah was the sufferer of a mindless assault in Queens close to Beach 54th St. and Arverne Blvd. As his family members mourn, Kutin is within the ideas of the NYPD detectives who’re working onerous to apprehend these accountable.”
A spokesperson for the city government said: ” This tragedy just isn’t solely devastating, however unacceptable…. we lengthen our deepest condolences to the sufferer’s household, buddies, and coworkers throughout this painful time and we’ll work diligently to deliver all individuals accountable to justice.”
According to The New York Post, security footage from a nearby shop shows Gyimah chasing after the group of three men and two women after they scrambled out of his car’s back seat
The Post reported that Gyimah caught up to them and held one of them down, before being beaten by the other four. He stood up, then was punched by one of the men and fell backwards.
Rev Samuel Arhin, a priest at the Ghana United Methodist Church where Gyimah workshipped, called him “a loving and caring gentleman – hardworking”, telling CBS News: “We’ve actually misplaced a devoted father.”
On his GoFundMe page, Mr Drakos described how Gyimah had continued doggedly ferrying passengers during the pandemic, saying: “This to me is a hero, like the primary responders. If a health care provider, a nurse, somebody, a member of the family wanted to get someplace, he was driving the cab, and he by no means stopped.”
Source: www.impartial.co.uk