A 15-year-old Ghanaian boy who moved to the United States only a year ago has been shot dead while walking to school in the Bronx, New York, in a killing that has shaken African immigrant communities and renewed concerns about bullying and youth violence.
Javits Frimpong was shot in the abdomen shortly before 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, 29 October, near Fulton Avenue and East 171st Street, close to Crotona Park, according to reports by ABC7 New York and TheGrio. He was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he later died.
Police Hunting Three Teenagers
Police are searching for three teenage suspects, believed to be aged between 16 and 18, who fled the scene. They were described as wearing black clothing and blue surgical masks. No arrests had been reported at the time of publishing, and the motive remains under investigation.
Father: “He Was My Everything”
His father, Thomas Frimpong, said he brought Javits from Ghana to give him a better life. He described his son as quiet, “very clever” and someone who kept to himself. “He’s my everything,” he told reporters, Adom Online reported.
Mr Frimpong said he believes bullying may be connected to his son’s death. He said Javits had complained about being bullied, and that just three days before the shooting, the school principal told him two students had been suspended for a week after a fight involving his son. He said the principal assured him Javits had been “defending himself.”
He urged those responsible to turn themselves in. “I don’t think they are going to go free for killing an innocent child,” he said. His mother, who lives in Ghana, was said to be struggling to accept the news.
Important: Police have not confirmed any link between the shooting and the bullying, and it has not been established that the suspects are his classmates. Some viral social media posts have claimed he was killed by “classmate bullies,” but this has not been confirmed by authorities.
Javits attended DreamYard Preparatory School, according to CBS News New York, which said neither the school nor the city’s Department of Education had immediately responded to questions about the bullying allegations. Neighbours described the killing as “devastating.”
Bullying: The Numbers
Whatever the investigation finds, Javits’s story has put a spotlight on how common bullying is, at home and abroad.
In the United States
- About 1 in 5 students aged 12–18 (19.2%) reported being bullied at school in the 2021–22 school year, according to the US National Center for Education Statistics.
- Girls (21.8%) were more likely than boys (16.7%) to report being bullied.
- Students of two or more races reported the highest rate, at 30.1%.
- In 2023, 19.2% of US high school students said they had been bullied on school property in the past year, according to the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
Around the World
- Almost 1 in 3 young teenagers worldwide have recently been bullied, according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics data.
- Over 32% of boys and 28% of girls report being bullied. In the 10 worst-affected countries, the figure rises to more than 6 in 10.
- UNESCO found that immigrant children are more vulnerable to bullying than locally born children, a finding that resonates with many African families abroad.
In Nigeria
- 34% of adult Nigerians say they were bullied in secondary school, according to a 2022 NOIPolls survey.
- 82% believe bullying is common in Nigerian secondary schools.
- Physical bullying was the most common form (65%), followed by extreme punishment (46%) and exploitation (24%).
- 70% of victims never reported it, and of those who did, 41% said nothing was done to the bullies.
Advice for Parents in the Diaspora
Experts advise parents, especially newly arrived immigrant families, to talk regularly with their children about school life, watch for warning signs such as reluctance to go to school, unexplained injuries or withdrawal, and report bullying in writing to the school and keep records. If a child’s safety is threatened, parents should contact the police.
Anyone with information about the Bronx shooting is urged to contact the NYPD Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS.
Sources: TheGrio via Yahoo News, ABC7 New York, CBS News New York, Adom Online, Pulse Ghana, NCES, CDC, UNESCO, NOIPolls. Image: Wikimedia Commons (file photo of the Bronx).