 |
| Thomas Frimpong, at the microphone, addresses reporters at the House of Justice in Harlem on 11 November 2026. Photograph: National Action Network. |
The family of Javits Frimpong, the 15-year-old Ghanaian student fatally shot while walking to school in New York, has renewed its demand for justice following the arrest of a teenage suspect.
Police arrested a 17-year-old boy on Wednesday, 11 November, and charged him with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon in connection with the Bronx shooting. Authorities have not publicly identified the suspect.
Speaking in footage broadcast by Al Jazeera English, the teenager’s father, Thomas Frimpong, recalled bringing his son from Ghana to continue his education in the United States.
“Now what I'm saying is I need justice for my son.”
Thomas said Javits arrived on 28 October 2025. He remembered collecting him from John F. Kennedy International Airport and the excitement with which the boy approached his new life.
A year and a day after that arrival, Javits was shot on his way to school. His father said he was at work when he received news of the shooting.
According to UPI’s account of the police investigation, officers responded to an emergency call at about 9.30am on 29 October and found Javits near East 171st Street and Crotona Place with a gunshot wound to his abdomen.
He was taken to St Barnabas Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
The family addressed reporters on Wednesday at the National Action Network’s House of Justice in Harlem. Civil rights campaigner Reverend Al Sharpton, lawyer Ben Crump and Ghana’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Samuel Yao Kumah, joined them.
News of the arrest emerged on the morning of the gathering, which organisers had arranged beforehand to press for answers and appeal for information about the killing.
Javits attended DreamYard Preparatory School in the Bronx, where he was a tenth-grade student. His death prompted demonstrations involving classmates, relatives and community members calling for accountability and greater protection for young people travelling to school.
Investigators had previously said they were seeking three people in connection with the shooting. The announcement of the arrest did not establish a motive, and the investigation remains open.
The family has raised concerns about bullying before Javits’s death. His father told reporters that school officials had informed him of the suspension of two students following complaints involving his son.
However, investigators have not publicly established that those incidents caused the shooting. News 12 reported that police had not linked an earlier school altercation to the killing.
The National Action Network said detectives were examining possible explanations, including bullying and robbery, without reaching a conclusion about what prompted the attack.
Crump, who represents the family, has called for an investigation that establishes both who was responsible and why the teenager was targeted. Sharpton also used the gathering to call for stronger gun legislation and question how teenagers obtained firearms.
The case has drawn diplomatic attention in Ghana. Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said Ghana and the United States agreed on the need to secure justice for Javits.
According to Ghanaian broadcaster 3News, acting US envoy Rolf Olson briefed Ablakwa on progress in the investigation. The minister also acknowledged assistance in arranging travel documents for members of the bereaved family.
Javits’s mother, Doris Adu Gyamfi, travelled from Ghana to the United States on an emergency visa after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani appealed to President Donald Trump. She attended the news conference as the family prepared to bury her son.
“I need justice for my child,” she said.
His sister, Millicent Frimpong, said Javits hoped to become a physician and had also expressed an interest in joining the military. Relatives described a boy enthusiastic about his education and the opportunities he expected to find in the United States.
The National Action Network has urged anyone with information about the shooting to contact the New York Police Department as detectives continue their investigation.