Detectives have finally made a move in the case of Javits Frimpong, the 15-year-old Ghanaian student who was shot on his way to school in the Bronx.
A 17-year-old was picked up for questioning Wednesday morning and taken to the 42nd Precinct, according to ABC7 New York. No charges have been filed yet, and police have not said what role, if any, the teen played in the shooting. Investigators are also still looking for more suspects.
For anybody who has followed this story since October 29, this is the first real sign of movement. As we previously reported, Javits was shot once in the stomach shortly before 9:30 that morning near East 171st Street and Crotona Place in the Claremont section, a few blocks from DreamYard Preparatory School. Surveillance footage reportedly shows him running before he collapsed. He was pronounced dead at St. Barnabas Hospital. Police have been hunting for three teens who ran off in black sweatsuits and blue surgical masks.
The custody news came hours before an attorney for the family was expected to hold a press conference in Harlem. Ben Crump, the civil rights attorney, signed on with the family on November 6. In his statement, Crump said Javits came here from Ghana a year ago dreaming of becoming a doctor and “deserved to make that walk safely.”
Javits moved to New York about a year ago to live with his father, Thomas Frimpong, a yellow cab driver grinding to build something better for his family. Thomas Frimpong told ABC7 that the school principal informed him two students had been suspended over an incident involving Javits just days earlier. He says the principal told him his son was innocent and had been defending himself.
Police have not confirmed a motive, so nobody should treat that as established fact yet. But it is exactly why folks packed an anti-bullying rally in Mott Haven last Saturday, and why Ghanaian community groups and neighbors have been out in the streets with candles.
His mother, Doris Adu Gyamfi, flew in from Ghana after Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that President Trump had agreed to expedite her visa. “I want justice for my son. That’s it,” she told ABC7.
We’ll keep this updated as the press conference happens and as police say more. For now, a family that buried a son thousands of miles from where he was raised is still waiting on the whole story.