Ghanaian teen shot dead going to school
Police are searching for three teenage boys after a 15-year-old was killed in the Bronx.
By Malik Salazar ·
At 9:24 a.m. on Thursday, police responding to a report near Corona Park in the Bronx found Javits Frimpong, 15, with a gunshot wound to his stomach. He was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. No arrests have been made, and an investigation is continuing as authorities search for three teenage boys in connection with the shooting.
Surveillance video reportedly showed Javits running with a person dressed in all black following behind. A second angle appeared to show masked individuals in dark clothing leaving the scene.
Javits had been in New York for one year, arriving from Ghana to live with his father, Thomas Frimpong. The elder Frimpong said his son was "clever" and "quiet" and that Javits was being bullied at DreamYard Preparatory School. He said the school's principal told him recently that two students had been suspended for harassing Javits. The principal could not be reached for comment by phone or email, and an NYPD spokesperson declined to comment Friday on whether the bullying reports were related to the attack.
Thomas Frimpong spoke to reporters on Thursday. "I lost him," he said. "I don't know what to do now." The shooting has affected the Claremont neighborhood and the city's West African community.
Ghana's foreign minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, addressed the killing in a Friday statement. "We will pursue justice and we will make sure that those who did this do not get away with it," he said.
The Ghana diaspora public affairs collective, a US-based non-profit, also issued a Friday statement. "Just one year ago, Javits arrived in the United States from Ghana to reunite with his father and begin a new chapter of his life," it said, adding that "that future has now been violently taken away."
The NYPD investigation remains active, with authorities seeking three teenagers for questioning.
