A 15-year-old Ghanaian boy, Javits Frimpong, has been shot dead while on his way to school in the Bronx, New York City.
Javits was reportedly chased before he was shot on Thursday morning, a year after arriving in the United States to reunite with his father.
The New York City Police Department said officers responding to a shooting report near Corona Park at about 9.24am found the teenager with a gunshot wound to his stomach.
He was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police said no arrests had been made as of Friday, adding that investigators were searching for three teenage boys in connection with the shooting.
Surveillance footage reportedly showed Javits running while a person dressed in black followed him. Footage from another angle appeared to show masked individuals in dark clothing fleeing the scene.
The killing has shaken the Bronx’s Claremont neighbourhood and members of the city’s West African community.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the teenager’s father, Thomas Frimpong, expressed grief over his son’s death.
“I lost him,” he said. “I don’t know what to do now.”
Frimpong described his son as “clever” and “quiet”, saying the teenager had been bullied at DreamYard Preparatory School.
He said the school’s principal recently informed him that two students had been suspended for harassing Javits. The principal could not be reached for comment by telephone or email.
An NYPD spokesperson declined to comment on Friday on whether the reported bullying was connected to the shooting.
Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, condemned the killing and pledged to pursue justice.
“We will pursue justice and we will make sure that those who did this do not get away with it,” he said in a statement on Friday.
The Ghana Diaspora Public Affairs Collective, a United States-based non-profit organisation, also mourned the teenager, saying his death had cut short his family’s hopes for a better future.
“Just one year ago, Javits arrived in the United States from Ghana to reunite with his father and begin a new chapter of his life,” the organisation said in a statement on Friday.
“Like so many Ghanaian immigrant families, his family came together in America with hopes of greater opportunity, security, and a promising future.
“That future has now been violently taken away.”
