Chased and shot on his way to school in New York: Javits Frimpong, 15, from Ghana, is killed in the Bronx
A 15-year-old boy from Ghana, Javits Frimpong, was chased down and fatally shot on his way to school in the Bronx, New York City. The attack happened on Thursday morning. Javits's father, Thomas Frimpong, says his son was being bullied at school.
A spokesperson for the New York City Police Department (NYPD) said on Friday that police received a report on Thursday morning about a shooting near Corona Park in the Bronx. At about 9:24 a.m., responding officers found Javits with a gunshot wound to his stomach.
Javits was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police have not made any arrests. An investigation is ongoing as authorities search for three teenage boys in connection to the shooting.
Surveillance footage reportedly captured Javits running, as a person wearing all black trailed behind. Another angle of video footage appeared to show masked individuals in dark clothing fleeing the site of the shooting.
The deadly attack has rocked the Bronx's Claremont neighborhood and the city's west African community.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the teenager's father, Thomas Frimpong, said: "I lost him. I don't know what to do now."
Frimpong said the fatal shooting came as Javits marked one year of being in New York after arriving from Ghana. He described his son as "clever" and "quiet." According to Frimpong, Javits was being bullied at the DreamYard preparatory school.
Frimpong said the high school's principal informed him recently that two students were suspended for harassing Javits. The principal could not be reached for comment by phone or email.
An NYPD spokesperson declined to comment on Friday on whether the reports of bullying were related to the attack.
Ghana's minister of foreign affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, condemned the attack 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 said in 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. Like so many Ghanaian immigrant families, his family came together in America with hopes of greater opportunity, security, and a promising future." The statement added: "That future has now been violently taken away."
