Friends and family of Kutin Gyimah gathered Sunday to call for justice a day after the cabbie died in the Rockaways Saturday when a group tried to rob him.
The 52-year-old father of four died after he was attacked by a group of passengers who allegedly tried to rob him at Beach 54th Street and Averne Boulevard in Edgemere on Aug. 13.
“I am heartbroken, I don’t know how to move on without him, he was the backbone of our family,” said his wife Abigail Gyimah during a press conference in Woodside, Queens, Sunday.
The slain Bronx resident joined the taxi cab business in 2009 after immigrating from Ghana, and fellow drivers remembered him fondly.
“He was always working and making us laugh in the break room. I will miss him,” said one yellow taxi driver, who didn’t give a name.
They gathered outside his employer Big Apple Taxi on Queens Boulevard Sunday morning to call for people’s help finding Gyimah’s attackers.
The company, in a press release, offered a $5,000 reward for finding those responsible.
A GoFundMe to cover the costs of his funeral and help his family has already raised nearly $56,000 from around 500 donors.
“We are asking for the public’s assistance with this. If you know anything please say something,” said Fernando Mateo of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, and a former Republican candidate for New York City mayor.
“This family needs justice,” Mateo added.
Local Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers, who also chairs the Council’s Transportation Committee, called Gyimah a “keystone in the Bronx Ghanaian community,” and vowed to work with the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission on driver safety.
“Kutin Gyimah’s death is a loss for all New Yorkers and we must get justice for his family,” the pol said in a statement Sunday. “I am committed to working with the TLC and driver advocates to champion safety concerns for all TLC drivers.”
Gyimah threw five people out of his yellow taxi minivan who had tried to rob him and didn’t pay their fare around 6:30 a.m. Saturday, according to police.
He then ran after them and one of the group took a swing at him, causing him to fall and hit his head, knocking him unconscious.
Paramedics rushed the victim to St. John’s Episcopal Hospital with wounds at the back of the head, but he could not be saved.
The police have not arrested any of the group of three men and two women as of Sunday afternoon, according to an NYPD spokesperson.
