Teen Busted in Execution-Style Shooting of Ghanaian Schoolboy Chased and Gunned Down on Bronx Street

A 17-year-old has been charged with murder in the cold-blooded killing of 15-year-old Ghanaian immigrant Javits Frimpong, who was chased down and shot in the stomach while walking to school in the Bronx two weeks ago.

The suspect was arrested Wednesday morning by the NYPD Violent Crimes Task Force and charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon. He was ordered held without bail after arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court. His name has not been released because he is a minor.

Sources identified him as Thierno Jalloh; police said he did not attend the same school as the victim. Two other suspects remain at large.

Javits Frimpong, a quiet 10th-grader who had arrived from Ghana about a year earlier to live with his father, Thomas Frimpong, was ambushed around 9:24 a.m. on October 29 near East 171st Street and Crotona Place, just a block from his home in the Claremont section.

He was on his way to DreamYard Preparatory School when three attackers wearing hoods and surgical masks pursued him. Surveillance video shows the group chasing the boy down the street. He and one attacker briefly leave the frame before the pursuer jogs back in the opposite direction.

“All three gave chase,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said last week. “And these cowards shot him in the back. If their intention was to rob him, he dropped his backpack.” The attackers then collected the shell casings, “so they knew exactly what they were doing,” Kenny added. Before the attack the three had been hanging out in nearby Crotona Park. After the shooting they fled to the Freeman Street subway station, jumped the turnstile and boarded a No. 5 train toward Manhattan.

Medics rushed the critically wounded teenager to St. Barnabas Hospital. He underwent surgery and was initially listed in stable condition, but died a short time later from the gunshot wound to the abdomen.

Javits had moved to New York in October 2025 seeking better educational opportunities. Family members described him as a focused, respectful student who dreamed of becoming a doctor. His father said the boy had complained of bullying at school and that two students had been suspended days earlier after an altercation. Police have examined bullying, robbery and possible mistaken identity as potential motives but have not publicly confirmed a link.

ADVERTISEMENT

The victim’s mother, Doris Adu Gyamfi, who traveled from Ghana after an emergency visa was arranged, spoke emotionally for the first time Wednesday at a press conference alongside civil-rights attorney Ben Crump and Rev. Al Sharpton. Relatives demanded full accountability for everyone involved. “One in the bag, two to go,” the boy’s uncle said after the arrest was announced.

Detectives continue searching for the remaining suspects. The NYPD has vowed to remain relentless in the investigation of the murder of a 15-year-old boy walking to school.