Javits Frimpong was 15 and had lived in New York for about a year when he was shot on his way to school in the Bronx on Thursday morning. He died at St. Barnabas Hospital. No one has been arrested.
Javits, a Black immigrant from Ghana and a student at DreamYard Preparatory School, was shot once in the stomach near East 171st Street in the Claremont neighborhood, police said. His father had brought him from Ghana, hoping to give him better opportunities. Surveillance video shows him running from someone dressed in black moments before he collapsed.
The NYPD is searching for three teenage boys in connection with the shooting. Police have not confirmed a motive.
His father has described one. He says his son was being bullied at school and had reported it. “He said, ‘Dad, anytime I am going to lunch, that guy keep on bullying me,'” the father told CBS New York. He told reporters that two students were suspended after Javits spoke up, and he believes he knows who is responsible. Those are the father’s account and the account of people at the scene, not a finding by police.
A school bus aide who knew the boy called him “an innocent kid” and “an honorable student that just came from Ghana.” The city’s Department of Education said: “Our hearts are with this young person’s family and school community during this unimaginably difficult time.”
Friday evening, clergy, chaplains and neighbors held a vigil at the spot where he fell. Leandra Feliz, whose 15-year-old son was killed in 2018, came to tell the family: “I’m here to let the family know I’m here.” Bishop Fernando Rodriguez said, “we need to stop the violence.” A church leader put it this way: “I want to be invited to a birthday party…not to a funeral.”
A February state report found that bullying incidents statewide rose from 10.2 to 18.2 per 1,000 students between 2017 and 2024. Police are still looking for the three teenagers.
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