Teenage Ghanaian Student Fatally Shot While Walking to School in Bronx, Family Speaks Out

A 15-year-old boy from Ghana was fatally shot in the Bronx on Thursday morning while walking to school.

The New York Police Department responded to reports of a shooting near Corona Park at approximately 9:24 a.m., where they located the teenager, Javits Frimpong, suffering from a gunshot wound to the stomach.

Despite being transported to a nearby hospital, Javits was pronounced dead. Authorities have not made any arrests, and the investigation remains ongoing as officials search for three teenage suspects.

Surveillance video reportedly shows Javits running as an individual in all black follows behind him. Additional footage appears to capture masked figures in dark clothing fleeing the area after the incident.

The tragic event has deeply impacted the Claremont neighborhood in the Bronx and the local West African community.

“I lost him,” Javits’ father, Thomas Frimpong, said to reporters. “I don’t know what to do now.”

According to his father, Javits had been in New York for one year after moving from Ghana. Described as “clever” and “quiet,” the teenager had been attending the DreamYard Preparatory School, where he faced bullying issues. Frimpong stated that the school’s principal recently notified him that two students had been suspended for harassing his son, though the NYPD declined to confirm whether the bullying was connected to the fatal shooting.

Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, condemned the attack in a statement: “We will pursue justice and we will make sure that those who did this do not get away with it.”

“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 Ghana diaspora public affairs collective, a U.S.-based nonprofit, said in a statement. “That future has now been violently taken away.”

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