Witnesses Walked Past Dying 15-Year-Old For 30 Minutes

An ambush near Crotona Park

Javits Frimpong, 15, left his family's apartment in Mott Haven on Thursday, Oct. 29, headed to DreamYard Preparatory School, an 18-minute walk across Claremont Park, according to the New York Daily News. He made it about a block.

Police say three males wearing dark clothing and masks ambushed him near Crotona Place and East 171st Street, steps from Crotona Park. Accounts of the exact time differ slightly — the Daily News put it at 9:20 a.m., the New York Post at 9:25, ABC7 at 9:30 — but all place it in the middle of the Thursday morning school rush.

Surveillance video described by multiple outlets shows Javits running while a person dressed in black chases him, then stops; shortly after, he is seen collapsing. He had been shot once, in the stomach, and ran about a block before he went down, NBC New York and ABC7 reported.

A manager from a nearby homeless shelter ran out and applied pressure to the wound while they waited for an ambulance, the Daily News reported, citing a witness who said Javits "was going in and out of consciousness" and that "there was blood all over his white T-shirt." He was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he died.

Thomas Frimpong, who drives a yellow cab, said the school principal called him with the news. "The principal called me that my son has been shot," he told the New York Post. He rushed to the hospital, then had to tell relatives back home. "I just called his mother [in Ghana] and even I can't hear her voice, crying, crying, crying. All the family members are crying," he said.

Who Javits Frimpong was

Javits moved to New York from Ghana in 2025 to live with his father in Mott Haven; his mother stayed behind. He was a 10th grader at DreamYard Preparatory School. The day before he died, he marked one year since arriving in the United States, the Daily News reported.

In a diary his family later shared with the paper, he wrote about wanting to become a physician. "I am doing good on my journey and figuring out who I am," he wrote. Of adversity, he wrote: "I figured out that when you start to win, people start to hate you and they try to bring you down. My family always motivate me that I shouldn't coperate (sic) with the bad kids. My family are like treasure to me."

Of his old life, he wrote that he "liked to read books, explore the forest to see the beauty of nature." Family members said he had been saving money in his room to help pay for friends' education back in Ghana.

His sister, Millicent Frimpong, described him as reserved in both countries. "He kept to himself a lot," she told the Daily News. "He was the same person in Ghana. He's not someone who you will see outside." She said he loved people and wanted to help them.

A GoFundMe for the family raised more than $800,000 within three days of his death, the Daily News reported.

"The boy was lying there for about a half hour before the cops came," — unnamed neighbor who witnessed the shooting, to the New York Post

Half an hour on the sidewalk

A neighbor who watched the shooting from his window told the New York Post that two of the attackers "ran after him, shot him, ran off into the park." He said Javits then lay where he fell for a long stretch while people kept moving past him.

"The boy was lying there for about a half hour before the cops came," the witness, who declined to give his name, told the Post. "People were just walking by him."

He said he didn't call 911 himself because he was on parole and didn't want to get involved. It was a woman who came out of a nearby homeless shelter who eventually called for help, he said: "She was frantic."

A block away, 18-year-old Karolinne Guerrero told the Post she heard what she thought was a gunshot from inside the park on her way to school that morning. "I'm like, 'Am I tripping?'" she said. She kept walking rather than stop, she said, so she wouldn't "be involved."

A bullying complaint, two days earlier

Thomas Frimpong has told multiple outlets he believes the shooting is connected to bullying at school. He said the DreamYard principal called him two days before the shooting to tell him two students had been suspended for a week following an incident with his son.

"The principal told me Javits is innocent. Javits is innocent. He was defending himself," he told ABC7. He told the Daily News that investigators asked him directly whether his son had problems with anyone: "[Police] were asking me about my son, they were asking me that he have any problem with anybody?" he said. "My son, he don't know anybody here."

The city Department of Education, in a statement to NBC New York, offered condolences and said the agency has been "providing, and will continue to provide, extensive supports to the school, including counseling and restorative teams." "No child should ever be unsafe in school or in their community. That will remain a north star as we build a safer city and school system," the statement said.

The statement did not directly address the bullying complaint. Police have said the motive for the shooting remains under investigation; they have not publicly confirmed a connection to the reported bullying.

No one is in custody

Nearly a week after the shooting, no arrests had been made, NBC New York reported. Police are searching for three males believed to be 16 to 18 years old, the New York Post reported; ABC7 described them as wearing black sweatsuits and blue surgical masks as they fled into Crotona Park.

Because no one has been charged, there is no indictment, plea or bond to report — the case is still at the identification stage. Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark publicly called on the suspects to turn themselves in.

"We need you to turn yourself in before you kill another innocent person," Clark said, according to the Daily News. "We're looking for you."

Anyone with information has been asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS; tips can remain anonymous.

A mother's visa, a father's vigil

Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned the killing and said he called President Trump to ask for an expedited visa so Javits's mother could travel from Ghana to New York. "The murder of a child is a pain no parent should have to endure, let alone from thousands of miles away," Mamdani said, according to the Daily News. "I just got off the phone with President Trump and he has agreed to grant her visa immediately."

Ghana's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said this week that the mother had left for New York, saying, according to NBC New York, that she wants "justice for my son."

At a vigil for his son, Thomas Frimpong said he does not expect the people responsible to go unpunished. "I don't think they are going to go free for killing an innocent child," he told NBC New York.

A familiar grief in the Bronx

Javits's death drew comparisons to the 2018 killing of Lesandro "Junior" Guzman-Feliz, another 15-year-old killed in the same part of the Bronx, as TheGrio noted; Guzman-Feliz wanted to be a detective, Javits wanted to be a doctor, and both deaths drew citywide outrage.

A Bronx resident reacting to the shooting called for more after-school programming in the neighborhood. "Our kids need... afterschool programs; they need different programs to keep them off the street. Too much idle time on a young man's hands means trouble," the resident told ABC7.

What happens next

No arrests have been made. Police are still searching for the three males seen fleeing into Crotona Park, and the Bronx DA's office has not filed any charges because no suspect has been identified. Until someone is taken into custody, there is no arraignment, bail hearing or plea to report — the next real milestone in this case is an arrest. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.