Javits Frimpong, a 15-year-old Ghanaian boy who had lived in the Bronx for barely a year, was chased and shot dead on his way to school on October 29. His mother, Doris Adu Gyamfi, is now coming to New York: President Donald Trump agreed to grant her an immediate visa after a phone call from Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Frimpong arrived from Ghana about a year before his death to live with his father, Thomas Frimpong, and attended DreamYard Preparatory School, where he hoped to become a doctor.
In a diary entry his family shared with reporters, he wrote: I want to go really far with education because you will earn money.
Another entry read: I figured out that when you start to win, people start to hate you and they try to bring you down.
Shot on the Way to DreamYard
On Thursday morning, October 29, at about 9:20 a.m., Javits left his home in the Claremont section of the Bronx, a block from school. Three teenagers in black hooded sweatsuits and blue surgical masks chased him and shot him once in the abdomen on Crotona Place near East 171st Street.
He collapsed after running about a block and was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 9:30 a.m.
The day before, he had marked his one-year anniversary in the United States.
Police believe the three suspects are between 16 and 18. After the shooting they jumped a subway turnstile and boarded a southbound 5 train, fleeing to Manhattan, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny. Surveillance video shows one of them running after Javits along the sidewalk.
Kenny said the attackers were in Crotona Park before Javits arrived: So they knew exactly what they were doing.
No arrests have been made.
NYPD Seeks Records of Suspended Students
Thomas Frimpong told detectives that two students fought with his son at school days before the shooting and that both were suspended. The principal told the father his son had not instigated the incident. The principal told me Javits is innocent. Javits is innocent. He was defending himself,
Frimpong said, describing Javits as precious
and very clever
.
Kenny said detectives were weighing robbery and mistaken identity alongside bullying: It’s one aspect we’re looking at,
he said, adding, We’re not going to discount the bullying angle here.
The NYPD has asked the city Department of Education for records on the suspended students but was told it would need a subpoena to get them, so the department is going through formal channels. Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels said the department would comply with lawful records requests and was supporting the investigation.
Kenny stressed there was no evidence Javits was involved in gangs or carrying anything valuable: Seems like he was just a very good kid.
A Department of Education survey this year found 84% of DreamYard students felt safe traveling between home and school.
Students Walk Out as Donations Pass $800,000
On Monday, students at DreamYard staged a walkout, chanting Javits’s name outside the school, a few blocks from where he was killed. He didn’t bother nobody. He comes to school trying to make people laugh,
one friend said. Large crowds also gathered in the Bronx, and thousands held vigils for the teenager.
Anna Agbotse, chair of public affairs for the National Council of Ghanaian Associations, said the killing has deeply affected the Ghanaian American community, where students described enduring bullying aimed at newcomers: This is happening because everything about us is different. Our accent is different… our vocabulary is different, the way we present ourselves is different, we’re more humble.
A GoFundMe for the family has raised more than $800,000 for the funeral, burial and unexpected expenses.
Cardi B and Fat Joe Speak Out as Loomer Faces Backlash
Cardi B used an Instagram Live on November 1 to attack bullying in New York schools, declaring the killing is the reason why I would never raise no kid in a New York public school.
She warned that relentless harassment can push even well-behaved children toward gangs — That make you want to join a gang so you could have your own group of people
— and rejected the framing that immigrant students are bullied only by Black American classmates: Everybody be bullying the new kids that come from foreign countries.
Fat Joe, volunteering with Food Bank For NYC, described the sequence bluntly: He did the right thing. Reported them. They got suspended. They came back and killed him.
The visa arrangement also drew fire from activist Laura Loomer, who posted on X on October 31 challenging the plan; social media users accused her of using a child’s death and his family’s grief to advance an anti-immigration position.
Trump Grants the Mother an Immediate Visa
Mamdani announced on Saturday that he had spoken personally with Trump, who agreed to grant Doris Adu Gyamfi an immediate visa so she can mourn her son in person.
The murder of a child is a pain no parent should have to endure, let alone from thousands of miles away. Javits Frimpong’s mother deserves to say goodbye to her son in person. I just got off the phone with President Trump, and he has agreed to grant her visa immediately. All of New York City is mourning this tragedy.
Police are still searching for the three teenage suspects and have asked anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS. As of Wednesday, the case remains open.
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