On the morning of October 29, 2026, just after 9:20 a.m. in the Claremont section of the Bronx, 15-year-old Javits Frimpong left the apartment he shared with his father and began the short walk toward DreamYard Preparatory School. The route across Claremont Park was one he had taken many times since arriving from Ghana roughly a year earlier. Within minutes, according to police and multiple news accounts, three young males wearing black clothing and blue surgical masks confronted him near East 171st Street and Crotona Place.

A single gunsH๏τ struck him in the abdomen. Surveillance video later obtained by outlets including the New York Daily News and the New York Post shows the teenager running along the sidewalk beside another person dressed entirely in black. In the footage the person in black stops and turns away while Frimpong continues fleeing before collapsing to the ground. Officers from the 42nd Precinct arrived quickly, loaded him into a patrol car, and drove him to St. Barnabas Hospital rather than waiting for an ambulance. He underwent surgery and was initially described as stable, yet he died a short time later. His father, Thomas Frimpong, 60, received a call from the school principal that morning and rushed to the hospital.

Speaking to reporters afterward he described his son as quiet and said the principal had contacted him only days earlier about bullying involving two other students who were subsequently suspended. Frimpong told CBS New York that he was alone with his son in New York and that he had to inform relatives still in Ghana. Police described the victim as the intended target and released descriptions of three males believed to be between 16 and 18 years old who fled on foot, possibly into nearby Crotona Park. No arrests have been announced. The video of the chase has circulated widely, prompting renewed attention to the circumstances that led a newly arrived teenager to run for his life on a weekday morning only a short distance from his own building.

The father’s account has become a central thread in coverage of the case as investigators continue to review surveillance footage and interview witnesses near the scene on East 171st Street.