Amber Lohr, 36, and the students were shopping for souvenirs as they neared the corner of W. 43rd St. and Eighth Ave. just before 6:15 p.m. Saturday. Her teen daughter was among the group the day before Mother’s Day.

As Lohr and the group approached the Port Gourmet Deli, 61-year-old Cyril Destin sat on a walker outside the entrance, cops said.

He pulled his left hand out of the inner breast pocket of his jacket and abruptly stood up, surveillance video shows.

With a sharp object in his hand, he lunged toward Lohr, who immediately began stumbling backward, the footage shows. Even still, she heroically remained by the students and urged them to back away, her husband said.

Destin sat back down on the walker and appeared to take a drag on a cigarette, according to the footage.

“She is completely traumatized,” the victim’s husband, John Lohr, exclusively told the Daily News on Monday. “We never want to go back to NYC ever again.”

Even as she bled with a near-mortal wound, she refused to abandon the kids, according to the spouse.

“My wife not only had taken the stabbing but should also be considered a hero by remaining in front of the children coaching them to go backwards without turning around,” John Lohr said.

The victim’s daughter, a nursing student, immediately administered emergency care.

“She handled it like a champ,” John Lohr said of his daughter. “Her instincts just kicked in. She took control of the whole situation.”

Meanwhile, a bystander called for help and the students contacted another adult with their group, he said.

Medics rushed the wounded woman to Bellevue Hospital, where she was treated for a stab wound to her chest.

“My daughter called me,” the father recalled. “I was in Pennsylvania. She calls me and said, ‘Mommy’s been stabbed!’ ”

Lohr raced to the city and took his family home, where his wife is recovering.

“She wanted to get the hell out of that place,” the man said. “It changed our life and our child’s life forever.”

The couple has five children together.

Police quickly arrested Destin and charged him with assault and criminal possession of a weapon.

His most recent address is the the former Times Square Hotel, which now serves as affordable housing for low-income, formerly homeless adults and people with serious mental illness, among others, according to nonprofit social services organization Breaking Ground.

The massive building is the “largest supportive residence in the country,” with 652 apartments.

A woman working at the deli Monday said Destin regularly stopped in for cigarettes, never causing any trouble.

Destin has numerous prior arrests, including for criminal mischief and menacing, and is known to the Police Department as “emotionally disturbed,” sources said.

“I don’t know why he’s out on the streets,” said John Lohr. “This is New York City. Where the towers fell, where the Statue of Liberty is. It’s a big place for tourists. I don’t understand why this guy is running around.

“I hope the guy rots in hell for what he did,” he added. “I hope they bring attempted murder charges against him.”

Maurice Boodie, 24, was standing outside his building when he was shot in the chest and right leg on Strauss St. near Newport St. in Brownsville at about 12:10 a.m., police said.

Medics rushed the man to Brookdale University Hospital, where he died about an hour later.

Police have made no arrests.

A neighbor recalled hearing a loud “bang” that woke her up.

“I was listening to hear if there was screaming after, but I didn’t hear anything,” said the woman, who declined to provide her name. “Then later, sirens.”

Friends and family visiting the block after the shooting lovingly referred to Boodie as “Mo.”

“He was a very good person, very quiet [and] never in trouble,” said a cousin who did not want to be named. “I know his mother can’t be in there right now. It’s his blood still on the floor and everything.

“It’s too much right now,” the cousin added.

A neighbor questioned why he would’ve been targeted, noting she couldn’t think of anyone Boodie may have had beef with.

“[He was] just loving,” said the woman, who only identified herself as Sonya. “I was shocked when I heard about it.”

The shooting took place a half-block away from a West Indian restaurant on Strauss St. where workers Eyon Johnson and Damien White were shot to death on Oct. 27, 2022. Sawandi Galara, 46, was arrested for the killings in February 2023 and charged with murder.

“I’ve been here seven years [and] I don’t go outside,” said a neighbor. “I’m not hanging out on the stoop.”

Three uniformed cops were approaching the corner of E. 52nd St. and Church Ave. in East Flatbush in a marked police vehicle when they came upon a man, identified by his friends and family as Christian Emile, pointing a gun at a rival just before 1:20 a.m., NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey told reporters.

The cops — two officers and a sergeant from the 67th Precinct — ordered Emile to drop the gun, the chief said.

When Emile, 33, instead ran from the sidewalk to the street, near a deli on Church Ave., one of the officers fired a Taser at him, briefly stunning him, Maddrey said.

“He still had the gun in his hand,” Maddrey said. “He runs back to the sidewalk and runs back toward 52nd St.”

The officers again yelled at him to drop his gun, then opened fire, mortally wounding him, Maddrey said.

The cops performed “lifesaving measures” on Emile until medics took him to Kings County Hospital, where he died shortly after, Maddrey said.

About 30 mourners, including Emile’s young son, gathered at his Brooklyn home Thursday night.

“He was a great guy,” said a friend who only identified himself as Jason. “A protector of his family. It’s a tragedy.”

Emile served multiple prison stints for robbery and was first incarcerated in December 2007, when he was just 16 years old, records show.

In 2021, he was locked up again for robbery, serving just over two months before he was released on parole.

Barricades lined the streets outside the museum at E. 79th St. and Fifth Ave. as a large crowd of protesters streamed out of Central Park and towards the fundraising event. The NYPD earlier said it would have “an adequate security deployment” outside the Met Gala, fashion’s biggest night in New York.

Both protesters and people looking to catch a glimpse of A-listers gathered at the intersection as a wall of police officers lined up in front of them.

One woman, wearing sunglasses and a black scarf covering her face, held a speaker playing Palestinian rap music, which the officers asked her to turn off.

The protests — officially billed as “Day Of Rage For Gaza: From The Encampments To The Streets” — began Monday afternoon around 4 p.m. at Columbia University and New York University, with a planned meet-up at Hunter College at 5 p.m. before marching towards the Met.

Police stopped protesters about a block away from the museum, barricading off the street to ensure no one gets through.

The large group splintered off into four smaller groups as they appeared to search for a way to bypass police.

About a dozen protesters were arrested as they ignored police orders to move to the sidewalk and off of Madison Ave. to allow traffic to flow through.

One group of protesters marched southbound down Fifth Ave. to E. 67th St. where they came across the One Hundred Seventh Infantry Memorial, which honors members of the infantry who died in World War I.

A Daily News reporter witnessed the group burn an American flag and spray paint the words “Gaza” and “free Palestine” across the massive bronze memorial. There were no arrests at the intersection as police did not witness the vandalism.

The group continued down Fifth Ave. to E. 59th St. where they vandalized the General William Tecumseh Sherman Monument in the southeast corner of Central Park.

Protesters hung a Palestinian flag and defaced the statue with spray paint and stickers. Cops surrounded the memorial to keep the group from doing further damage.

Sources said the Met had a larger security contingent than usual — including investigators in plainclothes both outside and inside the Fifth Ave. museum.

The sources also said several protesters with a history of arrests in New York City and elsewhere were expected to be part of the march.

Mayor Adams and police have said “outside agitators” have been involved in the college demonstrations that have roiled campuses across the city the last two weeks.

There has been debate about whether the students were coaxed into tactics they otherwise might have avoided, such as the recent violent takeover of Columbia’s Hamilton Hall, which was broken up by the NYPD last Tuesday night.

Iosif Lontsman got into a dispute over a parking spot he was competing for on Ocean Ave. near Avenue W about 4:25 p.m. Thursday, according to cops.

He inadvertently left his Subaru Forester in drive when he got out to quarrel with a woman. He was struck by a rear wheel of his own vehicle and wound up wedged between his SUV and a Nissan Altima driven by a 43-year-old woman.

His Forester also struck a parked, unoccupied BMW X4 as it rolled forward.

Medics rushed Lontsman to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, where he died from severe head and body injuries.

He was about a mile from home when he was crushed by his SUV. On Thursday, the man’s son received a call from a detective who told him his father was killed in the accident.

“[The detective] said that my father, he was on Ocean Ave., he stopped and was trying to back into a parking spot and there was a car coming from the other direction that took the spot,” said Mark Lontsman. “I can only imagine that he wanted to tell her, ‘Hey, that’s my spot.’”

Lontsman was left wondering how his father got himself into such a volatile situation.

“My father had his moments but he would not be looking to cause harm to anyone,” said Lontsman, 50. “But when he thought other people did wrong by him, he could get fiery.”

The man believes that had his father not gotten into the fatal encounter, he would have lived for “many more years.”

“I keep thinking of how many things had to go wrong for it to happen,” said Lontsman. “All of these things came together. If any one of those things did not happen he would be alive now.”

Iosif Lontsman, along with his wife and two sons, moved from Kazakhstan to New York City in 1989 as refugees.

“My mom was the initiator of the whole thing,” said Lontsman. “She said we had to take this opportunity while it’s here. We came and the doors closed behind us.”

In New York, Iosif Lontsman, a “jack of all trades,” searched for work while his wife, a successful biochemist, was able to continue her career in the city.

“Eventually he got a job from a landlord in Manhattan doing apartment renovations, and he continued on as an independent contractor,” said Lontsman.

Iosif Lontsman’s and his wife were married for 45 years before she died in 2016 after battling a long illness.

“They were both very close and they loved each other quite a bit,” said Lontsman. “No doubt about that.”

Iosif Lontsman often spent time watching his grandchildren, who planned to visit their grandfather’s apartment for Passover Seder on Saturday.

“This is a man who never lived his life for himself,” said Lontsman. “I know a lot of people say that, [but] he was always looking to help.

“Any time I needed him he would be there for me,” he added.

No one has been charged but police are still investigating the incident.

Earlier in the day, demonstrators stormed into The Museum at FIT on W. 27th St. and Seventh Ave., Fox News reported.

Video shows scores of people pushing through the doors, where a security guard worked to pull them closed but was overtaken.

“Free, free, free Palestine,” protestors shouted as they took over the lobby of the on-campus museum.

By early Thursday evening, about 60 protestors remained in the lobby, where tents and a sign stating “FIT Gaza Solidarity Encampment” were set up.

About 20 more protestors outside passed blankets, cardboard and markers to protestors inside, but security guarding the entrance barred anyone else from entering.

The museum was closed as students camped out, according to its website.

The NYPD had not responded to the college as of Thursday evening.

“We are monitoring and managing the situation to ensure the safety of the entire FIT community, which remains our highest priority,” a FIT spokesperson said in a statement.

Concern about antisemitism at protests sweeping campuses around the nation has grown in recent days, sparking demands for university officials to act more decisively to dismantle the demos.

Protests at Columbia University and New York University have led to the arrests of more than 200. The State University of New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology saw a small pro-Palestinian encampment pop up Thursday, following a similar demonstration at The New School.

At City College in Harlem, students have erected dozens of colorful tents around an American flagpole, where they also hung a Palestinian flag. “CUNY Students Resist Zionism” and “BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY,” signs read.

On Thursday night, protesters at the campus were seen booing a passerby and driving him away from the demonstration.

“I can sniff you, we can all sniff you,” one protester sneered at the man. “We can smell the Zionist on you.”

The protester told the Daily News the person she’d targeted was “frowning and recording” as he passed.

“I just could tell he was a Zionist,” said the woman. “They victimize themselves so quickly.”

Later in the night, chants like “Israel, go to hell!” broke out among the crowd of about 100, down from a peak of roughly 250 protesters.

“One, two, three, four — Israel no more!” demonstrators yelled in an inflammatory chant.

“Five, six, seven, eight — Israel, we’ll eliminate!” they continued.

Later on, demonstrators yelled, “We don’t want a Jewish state! We want ’48” — an allusion to the period before the founding of Israel.

Roughly 20 NYPD cops were seen scattered around the campus at the time.

CNN initially reported that university officials had been in touch with the NYPD, with plans to clear the encampment at about 5 p.m., but posted an update citing an unnamed law enforcement official saying “no action is imminent.” A call to the NYPD seeking clarification was not immediately returned.

“In solidarity with Palestine, while following the legacy of the CUNY student organizers that came before us, we have established the CUNY GAZA Solidarity Encampment at City College, the oldest campus from the City University of New York,” students wrote on Instagram.

CUNY students are calling for the university system to divest from Israel, ban partnerships and trips to Israel such as Birthright and Fulbright programs, reverse student and faculty disciplinary action related to pro-Palestinian activism and remove police from campus.

They also called on CUNY to release a statement “affirming the right of the Palestinian people to national liberation and the right of return,” and to make CUNY tuition-free.

“We demand a fully-funded, free CUNY that is not beholden to zionist and imperialist private donors,” the students wrote.

Throughout the afternoon, students shouted chants like, “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.” Some of them were skipping their plans for spring break, which runs through Tuesday, to be at the encampment.

“Frankly, I can’t really relax in a time like this,” said Andrew Shapiro, a Ph.D. sociology candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center and part-time faculty member at Hunter College, who is Jewish. “I have not felt like I could relax comfortably, like I can be a student normally. Nothing feels normal as an ongoing genocide is happening, allegedly in my name.”

“People were away and they flew back in,” said Hadeeqa Arzoo, a student at City College. “They flew from home to be here, and I think that speaks volumes to what this means for many people.”

Arzoo, who’s majoring in political science and international relations, said the encampment at Columbia “really lit a fire under us” that could not be delayed until after the break. CUNY officials had not engaged in any negotiations as of Thursday afternoon, she noted.

“As of right now, we’re seeing what happens,” Arzoo said. “Because we’re not moving. We’re not gonna be intimidated into silence. We’re here.”

Meanwhile in Chelsea, students set up a similar encampment inside the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Demonstrators stormed into The Museum at FIT on W. 27th St. and Seventh Ave., Fox News reported. Video shows scores of people pushing through the doors, where a security guard worked to pull them closed but was overtaken.

“Free, free, free Palestine,” protesters shouted as they took over the lobby of the on-campus museum.

By early Thursday evening, about 60 protesters remained in the lobby, where tents and a sign stating “FIT Gaza Solidarity Encampment” were set up.

A student group said in a statement they’re calling on FIT to divest from Israel and provide amnesty from disciplinary action. Encampment rules include: “Do not under ANY circumstances talk with NYPD or media.”

The NYPD had not responded to the site as of Thursday evening.

“We are monitoring and managing the situation to ensure the safety of the entire FIT community, which remains our highest priority,” a FIT spokesman said in a statement.

At City College, a spokesman said Thursday afternoon it was in the process of determining if the protesters were affiliated with CUNY.

“While The City College of New York is strongly committed to the principles of freedom of speech and expression on campus, it is mindful of any action that may cause disruption to our community in any way,” the spokesman said in a statement.

“CCNY’s longstanding position is that any legitimate protest — by any group that is part of our community — must be peaceful, respectful, nonthreatening and devoid of any hatred or intimidation. It must also not interfere with any activities on campus.”

The encampment included a poster to “Support the Five Demands Viva Palestina,” resembling similar signage to “Support the Five Demands Viva Harlem U” in April 1969, when a group of Black and Brown students set up a tent demonstration to promote racial equity.

The encampment, which appeared to include a number of tents, were set up on the university’s southwest lawn just days after the NYPD arrested more than 100 students demanding the university divest from Israel. The protesters have been sleeping on the grass without any sort of shelter for three nights.

“And as they were arresting the students on that lawn we all moved to this lawn as a way of saying you can arrest 100 people [but] 300 more of us are going to come and replace them,” said a graduate student who asked to be identified only as Molly.

On Sunday morning, student organizers announced they had negotiated with administration and tents would be allowed at least through the end of the week, protestors told the Daily News.

But the university’s student newspaper, the Columbia Spectator, reported late Sunday the reappearance of tents was not authorized.

“Students do not have permission to set up tents on the lawn,” a spokesperson told the Spectator. “Those who do are in violation of long-standing University policy and will be identified and subjected to disciplinary action.”

The ongoing protests, and reports of escalating anti-Semitic rhetoric, prompted condemnation Sunday from the White House and Mayor Eric Adams.  A university rabbi warned about 300 Jewish students via text message to head home to ensure their safety on campus.

In response to growing concerns over on-campus safety, the university will allow students to study remotely while a Jewish student group said students should not leave Columbia. The NYPD plans to increase its presence around the campus.

After students  last week refused to take down the tent encampment, hundreds of cops flooded the campus at the request of university President Minouche Shafik Thursday, who a day earlier defended the administration’s response to campus antisemitism before Congress.

The testimony sparked steady protests that continued through Sunday, with demonstrators waving flags and chanting.

“We’re here until we get our demands met. Graduation is coming in like three weeks,” said a student who asked not to be named. “Its supposed to happen on the lawn so they don’t get a graduation if they don’t divest.”

In a post on X Sunday evening, Mayor Eric Adams said the NYPD will deploy more officers outside the campus, but noted they cannot have a presence on campus unless requested by university officials.

The White House and Mayor Adams Sunday condemned antisemitism connected to the protests.

“The events of the last few days, especially last night, have made it clear that Columbia University’s Public Safety and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety in the face of extreme antisemitism and anarchy,” Rabbi Elie Beuchler wrote in a warning sent out to more than 290 students via WhatsApp.

“It deeply pains me to say that I would strongly recommend you return home as soon as possible and remain home until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved.”

In response to growing concerns over on-campus safety, the university will allow students to study remotely while a Jewish student group said students should not leave Columbia. The NYPD plans to increase its presence around the campus.

On X.com, CNN’s Jake Tapper said Beuchler told him he sent the message “in response, he says, to ‘just horrific’ videos of ‘protesters on campus calling for Jews to be killed, just off campus Jews being yelled at to ‘go back to Poland’, text messages I’m getting constantly from Jewish students about how unsafe they feel.'”

Beuchler on Sunday confirmed he sent the message, adding, “With Passover preparations and students to attend to, at this time I will not be taking any press inquires.”

In wake of the continuing protests and concerns, university administration will allow students at all schools and programs the option of remote learning to those “who are seeking academic accommodations due to campus activity for either religious reasons or other approved disability accommodation reasons,” according to a university source.

The White House condemned antisemitic rhetoric in a statement quoted by Politico.

“While every American has the right to peaceful protest, calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly Antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous — they have absolutely no place on any college campus, or anywhere in the United States of America,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement to the outlet.

The NYPD could not provide statistics on the number of antisemitic or anti-Muslim hate crimes reported to police in connection with the protests at Columbia, instead responding to the request with city-wide hate crime statistics between Jan. 1 and April 14.

Antisemitic hate crimes across the city rose from 66 to 96 so far this year compared to the same period last year. Anti-Muslim hate crimes rose from one to nine.

In a post on X.com, Mayor Adams condemned the rhetoric surrounding the protests.

“I am horrified and disgusted with the antisemitism being spewed at and around the Columbia University campus,” Adams said Sunday. “Hate has no place in our city, and I have instructed the NYPD to investigate any violation of law they receive a report about and will arrest anyone found to be breaking the law.”

At the university on Sunday, one Jewish student who received Beuchler’s text expressed fear for his safety on campus and has decided to head home for Passover early.

“Its very unsettling,” said the student, who did not want to be identified. “At the current moment right now, during the day I think it’s fine, [but] at night things get a lot more hectic.”

A pro-Palestine protester on the campus told the Daily News she believes antisemitism has “been weaponized to discredit the movement.”

“We do not believe that Jewish students should leave @Columbia,”  Columbia/Barnard Hillel, a group that supports Jewish students, posted on X.com. “We do believe that the university and the city need to do more to ensure the safety of our students.”

Protests of the war in Gaza have continued in defiance of university President Minouche Shafik’s decision to call in the NYPD to clear a campus encampment and arrest more than 100 demonstrators Thursday.

Shafik’s decision has met with intense criticism, with the Columbia and Barnard chapters of the American Association of University Professors saying in a statement Friday, “We have lost confidence in our president and administration, and we pledge to fight to reclaim our university.”

In a series of X.com posts Sunday, independent reporters showed videos of a new Gaza solidarity encampment being built on campus. Students at other colleges across the nation have set up similar encampments in solidarity with Columbia.

While the campus for six months has been the site of protests by both pro-Israel an pro-Palestinian students, concerns over safety have escalated over the last several days. On Friday, a group of 97 Jewish students said they felt threatened by the protests surrounding the campus gates and asked the school administration to let them attend classes virtually.

One video posted on YouTube Wednesday shows a woman wearing a keffiyeh cursing and screaming, “We are all Hamas!” at pro-Israeli counterprotesters off-campus, while a woman wearing an Israeli flag as a cape asks a police officer, “Why don’t you arrest these people?” and yells back, “You f—ing terrorist lunatics!”

Another video, posted to X.com Friday, shows two men on 116th St., also off-campus, screaming “Never forget the 7th of October,” referring to the Hamas terror attack on Israel that led to the siege of Gaza, and vowing that the attack would happen “10,000 times.”

In a statement Sunday, Columbia referred to student safety as its “No. 1 priority.”

“Columbia students have the right to protest, but they are not allowed to disrupt campus life or harass and intimidate fellow students and members of our community,” the statement reads. “We are acting on concerns we are hearing from our Jewish students and are providing additional support and resources to ensure that our community remains safe.”

The victim was at the intersection of New York Ave. and Avenue D in East Flatbush when a 28-year-old driver slammed into her just after 1:05 p.m., police said.

She’d fallen after getting off a bus and was on the ground when a vehicle hit her, witnesses told the Daily News.

“She hit her foot on the yellow-and-black divider in the middle of the road,” said Danna Lennox-Thomas, 45. “She tripped. She was on the ground when the car hit her.”

The victim suffered severe head and body trauma in the crash and was rushed to Kings County Hospital, but she could not be saved.

Her name was not released as police worked to notify her family of her death.

The driver did not immediately face charges.

“This is a tragedy,” said Lennox-Thomas. “Drivers have a responsibility to be aware of people.”