A Ghanaian teenage boy died after being shot in the abdomen while walking Thursday morning near a school in the Bronx, police said.
Javits Frimpong, 15, was shot one time just before 9:30 a.m. near East 171st Street and Crotona Place in the Claremont section of the borough, according to the NYPD.
Officers took him to the hospital, where he later died.
Police are looking for three teenage boys, ages 16 to 18, last seen wearing all-black clothing and blue surgical masks. They said it is unclear what led up to the shooting.
The gun violence happened on a street around the corner from the apartment the boy shared with his father. CBS News New York spoke by phone with Thomas Frimpong, 60, while he was still at the hospital.
“It’s not easy for me. it’s not easy for me. He’s my everything. I’m here with him alone. I’m here with him alone,” he said, adding he rushed to the hospital. “They said my son passes, past. It’s not easy, ma’am. It’s not easy.”
The father said he learned from the principal of his son’s school, Dreamyard Preparatory, that his son had been shot, adding the principal had been in contact with him before because there had been an incident a few days earlier.
“Two boys, um, were fighting with my son and the two boys got suspended,” Thomas Frimpong said.
He said that’s when his son finally opened up.
“He said, ‘Dad, any time I am going to lunch, that guy keep on bullying me.’ He said, ‘I have been reporting him several times,'” Thomas Frimpong said.
CBS News New York reached out to the school and the Department of Education to ask about the bullying claims, but neither immediately responded to our questions.
Javits Frimpong had come to the U.S. from Ghana one year ago to join his father.
“My son is very quiet. My son didn’t talk. He don’t talk,” Thomas Frimpong said.
Neighbors said they were shocked and saddened by the violence and a boy’s life stolen.
“It’s devastating. I got a son that’s 9. It’s sad,” neighbor Cecile Johnson said.
“It worried me. I’ve got kids,” Modesto Arriola said. “Over over here, there’s no control over here.”
“He was just going to school, like doing what he was supposed to do,” a longtime resident named Carla said, adding the victim had so much to live for and to offer to the community.
Thomas Frimpong called for the suspects to turn themselves in.
“I don’t think they are going to go free for killing an innocent child,” he said.
