A 17-year-old suspect has been taken into custody in connection with the killing of Javits Frimpong, the 15-year-old Ghanaian teenager who was shot while walking to school in New York.
The arrest was made by the NYPD Violent Crimes Task Force, according to a report by the New York Post. Charges against the teenager are still pending.
Javits Frimpong, a Ghanaian immigrant, was shot in the stomach on October 29 near East 171st Street and Third Avenue while heading to school. He was on his way to DreamYard Preparatory School when the attack occurred.
Video footage obtained by the Daily News reportedly shows three hooded individuals wearing surgical masks chasing Javits along the street. At one point, Javits and one of the suspects move out of camera view before the suspect is seen jogging back in the opposite direction.
“All three gave chase,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said. “And these cowards shot him in the back. If their intention was to rob him, he dropped his backpack.”
Kenny added that the suspects collected the shell casings after the shooting, suggesting they were aware of what they were doing.
Investigators said the suspects were gathered at Crotona Park before the shooting and later fled to Manhattan. Surveillance cameras captured them jumping a turnstile at the Freeman Street station and boarding a No. 5 train.
Emergency responders rushed Javits to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he underwent surgery. Although he was initially reported to be in stable condition, he later died from his injuries.
Javits’ father, Thomas Frimpong, told detectives that two students had recently been suspended for allegedly bullying his son. However, police say it remains unclear whether the bullying was connected to the fatal shooting.
Tragically, the day before his death marked one year since Javits moved to the United States from Ghana to join his father in the Bronx.
“Yesterday was exactly one year,” his grieving father told the Daily News.
Javits had dreams of becoming a doctor and often wrote about his ambitions in his diary.
“I want to go really far with education because you will earn money,” one of his diary entries read.
In another entry, he wrote: “I figured out that when you start to win, people start to hate you and they try to bring you down.”
