A New Yorker with a big heart for the Big Apple launched a fundraiser Friday for Amber Lohr, a tourist who was stabbed near Times Square while visiting NYC with her daughter.
Lohr, who was visiting New York City from Pennsylvania, was stabbed in an unprovoked attack on West 43rd Street and Eighth Avenue this month. An article in the New York Post reports that Cyril Destin, 62, a homeless man who has a long RAP sheet, was charged in connection with knifing the 36-year-old woman.
Although Destin was cuffed, Sheikh Musa Drammeh, founder of Muslim Media Corporation, wants more to be done to show Lohr – and the rest of the world – that NYC is a great place to visit. So, he’s organizing a fundraiser to bring the Keystone State resident and her family back to the city for a much better experience.
“Anything that affects any New Yorker, affects all of us. But if a tourist visiting New York is attacked, that is even more painful,” Drammeh said, because so many people choose the city as “a destination of choice.”
Drammeh is passionate about New York and expressed his love for all that the city has to offer, though he admits he is frustrated with local crime rates.
“They let loose individuals who should never ever be let loose,” he said. ”For whatever reason they’re doing it, it is hurting New Yorkers. Because, at the end of the day New Yorkers must be safe for the city to be a place to live and do business.”
And he wants tourists to always feel welcomed here.
“One attack on a tourist is one too many,” he said. “We thought that since our newspaper was about peace and public safety and love, then it is incumbent on us to make sure that this family wants to come back and show them what New York is all about.”
Drammeh’s goal is to raise $25,000 dollars to arrange another – much better trip – for Lohr and her family.
What does he have planned? To start, he’ll arrange a luxurious limo ride from her home to the big city. After that, he’s not worried.
“New York is the entertainment capital of the world. Once we have the money, trust me, the idea of making their trip and their stay a paradise won’t be a problem,” he said.
