Javits Frimpong shooting remains unsolved as father blames bullying

Javits Frimpong shooting remains unsolved as father blames bullying

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A Chase Caught on Camera

The surveillance video shows a 15-year-old boy running for his life. Javits Frimpong was less than a block from Crotona Park, near East 171st Street and Third Avenue in the Bronx, on his way to school last Thursday morning when someone dressed in black chased him. The pursuer stopped, turned around, and moments later the teen collapsed in the distance. He had been shot in the abdomen and was pronounced dead later that day, NBC New York reported.

Nearly a week later, the shooting remains unsolved. Police are still searching for the shooters, and the motive has not been made public.

Javits Frimpong: CCTV Shows the CHASE — Was Bullying Involved?!

Father Blames Bullying for Son’s Death

Thomas Frimpong describes his son as a quiet teenager who mostly kept to himself and showed up to class every day. It was the school principal who called to tell him that Javits had died. In the days before the shooting, the father learned his son had been bullied at school and that Javits had complained to school officials. Thomas Frimpong believes the killing was retaliation for that report, which he said resulted in two students being suspended.

Javits moved to New York City from Ghana in 2025 to live with his father and start a life in the United States. A yellow cab driver told NBC New York he had to be the one to call the boy’s mother in Ghana and tell her what had happened to her son.

“I don’t think they are going to go free for killing an innocent child,” Thomas Frimpong said at a recent vigil.

The Department at Odds with Detectives

The New York City Department of Education has insisted it is cooperating. In a statement Tuesday, the DOE offered condolences and said it would “do everything we can to support the NYPD in their investigation,” adding that counseling and restorative teams are available to any student who needs support. “No child should ever be unsafe in school or in their community,” the statement read.

But NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told CBS News New York that the department is not being cooperative. Investigators, he said, are waiting on a subpoena to obtain records tied to the alleged bullying claims. Kenny also cautioned against assuming a single explanation: “Certainly, we’re looking into that with the assistance of the Department of Education, but we’re certainly not going to discount the fact that maybe he was a victim of a robbery gone bad or perhaps a mistaken identity.”

Police are looking for three teenagers in connection with the shooting. According to CBS News New York, the suspects ran into Crotona Park and were captured on surveillance video jumping a turnstile before taking the 5 train into Manhattan.

A Mother Flying Toward Justice

Javits’s mother is now on her way to New York. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has condemned the shooting, said he called President Trump to expedite her visa, and on Wednesday Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed she had departed, saying she wants “justice for my son.” Ghana’s President John Mahama announced that his government will cover her travel costs and assigned a team to assist with the visa process. Funeral preparations are underway.

Students hold vigil for Javits Frimpong, 15-year-old who was gunned down in the Bronx

On Monday, students at Dreamyard Prep School held a silent vigil, carrying signs that read “Justice for Javits,” “Forever 15,” and “Protect kids, not guns.”

“Honestly it’s such a struggle that we have to come to school every day, fear for our lives. As a student, school should be one of the only places that we should feel safe,” one student told CBS News New York.

Three Teenagers, One Open Question

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS. What led to the deadly shooting is still not clear, and the dispute between the NYPD and the Department of Education over access to the bullying records leaves the central question in this case — whether a school complaint set the killing in motion — officially unanswered.

More on Javits Frimpong

Questions still linger in shooting death of 15-year-old Javits Frimpong
15-Year-Old Javits Frimpong Shot Dead on His Way to School in the Bronx | True Crime

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