The teenage boy arrested for participating in the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Javits Frimpong in the Bronx did not attend the same school as his alleged victim, casting doubt on bullying as a motive in the tragic shooting, according to an attorney for the slain teen’s family.
In the wake of his son’s fatal shooting on Oct. 29, the victim’s father, Thomas Frimpong, told NYPD detectives that two fellow students had recently been suspended for bullying his son. But attorney Ben Crump on Thursday said the boys accused of bullying Javits have since been cleared of the shooting.
“They were not the shooters,” Crump told the Daily News outside Bronx Supreme Court, where the 17-year-old suspect was arraigned in the Youth Part Thursday on charges of murder, manslaughter and weapon possession as Javits’ family, including the teen’s uncle, looked on from the gallery.
At his arraignment, the teen suspect appeared with his hands cuffed behind him and was wearing a grey school uniform sweater over a white collared shirt and grey slacks. He jutted his jaw in defiance, but remained quiet as Judge E. Deronn Bowen ordered him held without bail.
Earlier that day, Javits’ family had a chance to speak with District Attorney Darcel Clark and her team, who assured relatives that they would have justice for their slain loved one as law enforcement continues to pursue two additional suspects, Crump said.
It was not immediately clear if the arrested 17-year-old was the triggerman, officials said.
“They believe that, in due time, that they will arrest the other individuals they felt were responsible for this tragic killing of this 15-year-old high school student,” said Crump.
Absent from the arraignment was Javits’ mother, Doris Adu Gyamfi, who said that she “cannot emotionally come to the courtroom to face him,” according to her attorney.
Javits was struck in the abdomen on Crotona Place near E. 171st St. at 9:24 a.m., just a block from his home in Mott Haven.
He was on his way to DreamYard Preparatory School when he was shot.
Video obtained by the Daily News shows three attackers wearing hoods and surgical masks chasing Javits down the street. Javits and one of the attackers then briefly disappear out of frame before the attacker 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 picked up the shell casings, “so they knew exactly what they were doing,” Kenny said.
Before the shooting, the killers were waiting in Crotona Park and then fled to Manhattan after the murder, according to Kenny. Surveillance footage caught them jumping the turnstile at the Freeman St. station before taking the No. 5 train.
Medics rushed Javits to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he underwent surgery and was initially believed to be in stable condition. But he died a short time later.
The day before Javits died was the one-year anniversary of the start of his new life in the U.S. after emigrating from West Africa to join his father living in the Bronx.
“Yesterday, yesterday was his one year,” the grieving father told The News. Javits dreamed of being a doctor.
“I want to go really far with education because you will earn money,” Javits wrote in his diary, which his family shared with The News.
The Rev. Al Sharpton said Wednesday at National Action Network headquarters in Harlem that the tragedy is every parent’s worst nightmare.
“This young man came from Ghana,” Sharpton said. “He came looking to have an education. He came looking to live a life that he could contribute back to his family. His mother and father sent him here to do well. And for him to be in any way harmed is a blight on all of our communities. And we must stand with this family.”
Kenny called Javits the embodiment of the American dream and said there is no indication he had anything valuable in his backpack or was wearing pricey jewelry. Nor is there any evidence he was caught up with the wrong crowd.
The backpack was stolen by a passerby and has not been recovered, according to Kenny.
“From all indications, this was a kid that was doing things right,” Kenny said. “He would voluntarily leave his phone at home because he wanted to concentrate on his schoolwork. He would come home, do his homework and then he would jump on his phone periodically. But he was very, very into his schoolwork.”