Ghanaian teenager fatally shot while heading to school in the Bronx

A 15-year-old boy who moved from Ghana to New York a year ago was chased and fatally shot while on his way to school in the Bronx on Thursday morning. The killing of Javits Frimpong has shaken the borough’s Claremont neighborhood and the city’s west African community.

A New York City police department spokesperson said Friday that officers had responded to a report of a shooting near Corona Park. They found Javits at about 9.24am with a gunshot wound to his stomach. He was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

As of Friday, no arrests had been made. Authorities were searching for three teenage boys in connection with the shooting, and the investigation remained ongoing.

Surveillance video reportedly showed Javits running with a person dressed entirely in black following him. Footage from another angle appeared to capture masked individuals wearing dark clothing leaving the location of the shooting.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the teenager’s father, Thomas Frimpong, expressed his grief. “I lost him,” he said. “I don’t know what to do now.” He described his son as “clever” and “quiet” and said the shooting happened as Javits marked a year since his arrival in New York from Ghana.

Frimpong said his son had experienced bullying at DreamYard preparatory school. According to the father, the high school’s principal recently told him that two students had been suspended for harassing Javits. The principal could not be reached by telephone or email for comment.

Police did not establish a connection between those allegations and the fatal shooting in their comments Friday. An NYPD spokesperson declined to comment on whether the reported bullying was related to the attack.

Ghana’s foreign affairs minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, condemned the killing in a statement Friday and pledged to seek accountability. “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 nonprofit, also issued a statement Friday. It said Javits had come to the United States to reunite with his father, with his family hoping for greater opportunity, security and a promising future. “That future has now been violently taken away,” the group said.