The 15-year-old Ghanian immigrant shot to death on this way to his Bronx school recently wrote in his diary about his determination to continue his studies and find success in America.
“I am a shy person,” Javits Frimpong wrote in the lined pages of his journal shared by his family with the Daily News. “I am doing good on my journey and figuring out who I am.”
“I figured out that when you start to win, people start to hate you and they try to bring you down,” he says in another entry. “My family always motivate me that I shouldn’t coperate (sic) with the bad kids. My family are like treasure to me.”
The day before he was killed, Javits marked the one-year anniversary of starting his new life in the U.S. after immigrating from West Africa to join his father, leaving his mother behind.
“He believed that once he’s here, he’s gonna have a good life,” said his sister Millicent Frimpong, 33. “He’s a smart kid and he wants to help people. He loves people. He cares for people.”
Javits dreamed of becoming a physician. The tenth grader’s hopes were shattered on Thursday on his way to class at Dream Yard Preparatory School, just an 18-minute walk across Claremont Park from his home, when he was ambushed by three masked attackers who shot him once and fled.
“I want to go really far with education because you will earn money,” Javits wrote in his diary.
He compared his new school favorably to education in Ghana.
“School has been good when I came here,” he wrote. “Because in Ghana they beat us and put fear on us when learning so many students got frustrated and can’t learn. One mistake and they will punish you.”
“I liked to read books, explore the forest to see the beauty of nature,” he wrote of his life in Ghana.
Javits left behind a modest stash of cash in his room that his family says he was saving to help supports friends’ education back in Ghana.
“Anything that is positive is importance (sic) to me but the most importance is worshiping God,” Javits wrote in another entry. “The most important events in my life is celebrating Christmas because it was the month that Jesus was born.”
His killers have not been caught.
“My family are the people who will help me when no one will even attempt to help me,” Javits wrote in his diary. “We spend (time) eating together, playing games together … My family like to have fun.”
The victim’s heartbroken father said his son had been bullied by a couple of students at the school who were recently suspended — and believes the bullying may have something to do with Javits’ murder.
“[Police] were asking me about my son, they were asking me that he have any problem with anybody?” Thomas Frimpong said. “My son, he don’t know anybody here.”
Javits only made it a block from his home in Mott Haven when he was struck in the abdomen on Crotona Place near E. 171st St. about 9:20 a.m.
“They were waiting for him in the park,” one witness told The News. “They wore hoodies and masks. I saw him running, I heard the shot and (he) went down.”
“There was blood all over his white T-shirt,” he added, recalling how a manager from a nearby shelter applied pressure to the wound before an ambulance arrived. “He was going in and out of consciousness. He wasn’t looking good.”
Surveillance video recorded the attackers trailing Javits and hiding behind cars before they shot him and ran off.
Javits was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he died. The victim was the intended target of the killers — three males, each wearing a surgical mask, cops said.
“He kept to himself a lot,” Milicent Frimpong said of her brother. “He was the same person in Ghana. He’s not someone who you will see outside.”
The killing sparked public outrage and condemnation from elected officials. A GoFundMe to support his family has raised over $800,000 in just three days.
“The murder of a child is a pain no parent should have to endure, let alone from thousands of miles away,” Mayor Mamdani said on social media Saturday. “Javits Frimpong’s mother deserves to say goodbye to her son in person. I just got off the phone with President Trump and he has agreed to grant her visa immediately. All of New York City is mourning this tragedy.”
Anyone with information about Javits’ murder is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.