17-year-old arrested over fatal shooting of Javits Frimpong in New York
A 17-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Ghanaian teenager Javits Frimpong, who was killed while walking to school in the Bronx, New York.
According to the New York Daily News on Wednesday, November 11, 2026, the suspect was being held at an NYPD station in the 42nd Precinct, with charges yet to be filed.
It was not immediately established whether the teenager was the suspected gunman or an accomplice in the October 29 attack.
Frimpong was shot in the abdomen at about 9:24 a.m. on Crotona Place, near East 171st Street, just a block from his home in the Mott Haven neighbourhood. He was heading to DreamYard Preparatory School when the incident occurred.
Surveillance footage reportedly captured three masked attackers wearing hooded clothing chasing him along the street before one of them opened fire.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said the attackers shot Frimpong in the back and subsequently picked up the spent bullet casings, apparently to destroy evidence.
“All three gave chase,” Kenny said last week. “And these cowards shot him in the back. If their intention was to rob him, he dropped his backpack.”
He added that the suspects’ decision to retrieve the shell casings suggested that the attack may have been premeditated.
Investigators believe the suspects had been at Crotona Park before the shooting and escaped to Manhattan afterwards. Security footage allegedly showed them jumping a turnstile at Freeman Street station before boarding a No. 5 train.
Frimpong was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he underwent surgery but later died from his injuries.
His death has left members of the Ghanaian immigrant community in New York devastated and reignited concerns about bullying in schools across the city.
His father, identified in the report as Thomas Frimprong, reportedly told detectives that two students had recently been suspended for bullying his son.
However, Mr Kenny said investigators had not yet determined whether the alleged bullying was connected to the teenager’s killing.
“It’s one aspect we’re looking at, as well as others,” he said.
Police are also examining whether Frimpong knew his attackers or had any previous association with them.
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