The NYPD had to subpoena the city’s Department of Education to get information in the killing of Javits Frimpong, the 15 year old Bronx student who was chased down and shot on his way to school last week.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny disclosed the subpoena Monday while updating the public on the case. Detectives first tried to get the information through the Department of Education and were forced to go the legal route to obtain it.
School records could speak directly to one of the motives police are investigating. Frimpong’s father, Thomas Frimpong, has said he believes the boys who bullied his son are responsible for his death. A school bus aide told CBS New York that at least two students were suspended for bullying the teen. His father said the school’s principal told him his son was not the aggressor. “The principal told me Javits is innocent. Javits is innocent. He was defending himself,” he said.
Kenny said detectives are working three possible motives: bullying, robbery, or a case of mistaken identity in which the shooters thought Frimpong was a rival gang member. “We’re looking at the possibility this is a robbery. We’re not going to discount the bullying angle here, or if he was just simply mistaken as the ops,” Kenny said. Police have found nothing indicating Javits Frimpong was involved in gang activity.
The shooting happened shortly before 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, October 29, near East 171st Street and Crotona Place in the Claremont section of the Bronx. Police say three suspects approached Frimpong with their faces covered. Kenny said they wore hoods and surgical masks on a hot morning, and Frimpong recognized the danger immediately and ran. “This kid maybe was only in the country for a year, but he knew exactly what was going on, and he knew it was time to run,” Kenny said.
Frimpong dropped his backpack as he fled. He was shot in the abdomen. Police say a bystander then stole the backpack, so it was never recovered. The shooters went back to pick up the shell casing before escaping into a nearby subway station on Southern Boulevard, where they jumped the turnstiles. “They knew exactly what they were doing,” Kenny said.
Javits Frimpong moved from Ghana about a year ago to live with his father in New York. He wanted to become a doctor. Kenny described him as a teen focused on school, saying he would leave his phone at home on purpose so he could concentrate on his work. “From all indications, this was a kid who was doing things right,” Kenny said. “He was trying to get ahead by going to school.”
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On Monday morning, students at DreamYard Preparatory School, where Frimpong was a student, staged a walkout protesting his killing and gun violence in the city.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said over the weekend that he spoke with Trump, who agreed to grant Frimpong’s mother an immediate visa so she can travel to the United States for her son’s funeral. Her arrival has not yet been confirmed.
The case has drawn painful comparisons to the 2018 killing of Lesandro “Junior” Guzman Feliz, the 15 year old Bronx teen murdered by Trinitarios gang members who mistook him for a rival. Guzman’s mother attended a vigil for Frimpong on Friday. Cardi B, who donated to Guzman’s family in 2018, also spoke out about Frimpong’s death and the bullying of new kids in school.
The family has launched a GoFundMe to cover funeral, burial, and other expenses. “Our family is devastated by this unimaginable loss. No father should have to bury his child, especially under such heartbreaking circumstances,” the fundraiser reads.
No arrests have been made in the Javits Frimpong case. Anyone with information can call NYPD Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS or submit a tip online through the Crime Stoppers website.
