Mike Sturgis, of Wynnefield Heights, said "I just wanted him to graduate and complete his goals through high school and get to high school."
Scott was beaten, stabbed and robbed by a man who chased him off a trolley Tuesday afternoon at 70th and Elmwood in Southwest Philadelphia and into a Chinese take-out where the boy had run for safety.
The assailant apparently noticed Scott was carrying a lot of money after it dropped out of his pocket as he reached to pay his fare. The 14-year-old, who just graduated 8th grade at Martin Luther in Plymouth Township almost died if not for the skilled work of surgeons at Childrens' Hospital, who repaired a severed artery in his abdomen.
A child left heartbroken and distrusting of the world around him, if not for the kindness of others who reached out to show they cared.
"I feel happy and like somebody would wanna reach out to me because it was awful what the man did to me and I feel happy that somebody would react to it."
Mike Sturgis' father had seen the story on Action News and told his son about it.
"To have a 14 year old get ready to graduate from school going to the next grade and have something devastating like that happen to him, that hit home, because that could be anybody's son," said Mike Sturgis.
"And something so positive happen to my son to give him faith to believe that there are so much more positive people in the world than the one negative person who did this to my son," said Tosha Annan, Tahmir's mother.
Nancy Scott, Tahmir's grandmother, said "I just thank God that we're still planning his graduation and not a funeral."
Ultimately Tahmir didn't just have the money that was stolen from him replaced by another young man. It seems he gained a new friend.
"Now I can go see somebody, go talk to somebody about it," Tahmir said.
Tahmir will make his graduation on Tuesday. The darkness in his life has been replaced by the light of some good people in Philadelphia.
