(DNAINFO) Murray Weiss —

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN — An Arizona tourist who brought her children to New York for their first visit to the city was mugged in Midtown and dragged half a block by her attacker before a group of Good Samaritans and police captured him and rescued her cash and belongings.

Jaime Cowgur, 36, was finishing a two-day swing through the Big Apple with her teenaged son and daughter when she suddenly felt a hand reaching into her back pocket as she walked along West 35th Street near Eighth Avenue Wednesday around 6:15 p.m.

“What are you doing?” she demanded as she grabbed his wrist. But then he grabbed her backpack straps and try to rip it from her back.

The assailant, identified by police as Theordore Shearin, 37, pulled so hard he yanked her onto the pavement in front of startled pedestrians and motorists.  But Cowgur would not let go.

Source: VIDEO: New Yorkers Restrain Man Who Mugged Arizona Mom – Midtown South – DNAinfo.com New York