Community gathers to ‘honour' scientist who died following Dundee attack

Independent

7 hours ago

Members of a Dundee community have gathered in a pub close to where a scientist was fatally attacked to raise money for her grieving family and 'honour her name and her life'.
Dr Fortune Gomo, 39, died after suffering injuries near her home in the city on the afternoon of Saturday, July 5.
The Scottish Water employee had studied in Scotland and Zimbabwe, and was also a mother.
Members of the community gathered on Sunday at Sandy's Bar, close to where the attack happened, for a fundraising event that included sessions from local musicians, raffles and face painting.
Pub manager Sinead McGuire explained why she and her staff wanted to host the event for Dr Gomo's family.
She said: 'We all live in that area where it happened, and we all obviously work here, so because it was so local to us we wanted to do something to help out and show the kind of community support.
'We never expected it to take off as well as it did.'
Ms McGuire added that the money raised from the event would go 'straight' to Dr Gomo's grieving family.
Local musician Andrew Crawford, who was approached by Ms McGuire to organise music for the event, said the number of people who came forward to get involved had been 'overwhelming'.
'When we started posting it out on social media, the power of social media, people automatically wanted to just find out what was going on,' he said.
' Musicians wanted to donate their time and their skills. People wanted to put donations and money, then raffle prizes. And it grew arms and legs.
'Inside 48 hours, it became quite a substantial event.'
Asked about the reasons for the level of support from the community, Mr Crawford explained that people had been 'shocked' by the news of the attack, and had wanted to show Dundee is 'full of love'.
'One, (the event) shows the community spirit. Two, it shows that we're listening. We're aware of what goes on round about us, what we want to bring and show is that it's safe to be here in Dundee,' he said.
Mr Crawford added: 'People here care about what happens in their community. Without that, we don't have anything.
'And they just want to show for the family that Dundee is a city that cares, that the majority of people in Dundee are full of love.'
He added: 'We'll honour her name and her life today, certainly from this venue and from the people that are here.'