{"id":391264,"date":"2026-11-02T20:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T20:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/391264\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T20:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T20:58:08","slug":"nypd-investigating-bullying-as-possible-motive-in-bronx-teens-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/391264\/","title":{"rendered":"NYPD investigating bullying as possible motive in Bronx teen’s killing"},"content":{"rendered":"

NYPD detectives are investigating whether bullying played a role in the fatal shooting<\/a> of a 15-year-old Bronx student last week, but say the city Department of Education won’t provide information about the alleged bullying without a subpoena.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, they\u2019re not willing to give us that information without a subpoena, so we\u2019re going through proper channels to get that information,\u201d NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Monday, four days after the shooting.<\/p>\n

Kenny said detectives have not yet named any suspects in Frimpong\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Javits\u2019 father, Thomas Frimpong, has said two students fought with his son at Dreamyard Preparatory School a few days before the shooting, and that both were suspended. Kenny called it \u201cone aspect that we\u2019re looking at as well as some others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels did not directly address the NYPD’s claim that the department was withholding information without a subpoena.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is so much we don\u2019t know right now,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cI reiterated [this to the] family that we are working to find them as many answers as possible and that we will do everything we can to support the NYPD in their investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Investigators are also weighing other possibilities, including whether the killing resulted from a robbery, or whether Javits was thought to be someone\u2019s rival, he said. But, he added, \u201cWe\u2019re not going to discount the bullying angle here.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, police have found nothing that indicates Javits was involved in gang activity, the chief said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeems like he was just a very good kid,\u201d he said. \u201c\u200aHe would voluntarily leave his phone at home because he wanted to concentrate on his schoolwork.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three people, hooded and wearing surgical masks, were in Crotona Park well before Javits came along Thursday morning, Kenny said. When they walked up on him, Javits ran, the chief said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll three gave chase, and these cowards shot him in the back,\u201d Kenny said.<\/p>\n

Javits dropped his backpack as he ran, and someone else stole it, police said. It has not been recovered.<\/p>\n

The three attackers then went back and picked up the shell casings, the chief said. \u201cSo they knew exactly what they were doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the shooting, all three jumped a subway turnstile and got on a southbound 5 train, and police tracked them to Manhattan, according to Kenny.<\/p>\n

In a statement Friday, the education department said it was making counseling and other support available to students, families and staff, and \u201csupporting NYPD as they investigate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students at DreamYard Preparatory School held a walkout and a memorial for Javits on Monday, Kenny said.<\/p>\n

In a survey this school year, most students said they felt safe in or near the school \u2014 including 84% who said they felt safe traveling between home and school \u2014 according to data from the DOE published by the NYC SIFT platform<\/a>. Students\u2019 overall impression of safety at the school was slightly lower than the citywide average at other public schools.<\/p>\n

Thomas Frimpong said Monday morning that a detective had visited the family Sunday night and said police would go to the school Monday morning. \u201cBut we haven\u2019t heard back from them today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The chief said detectives have been in constant contact with the father, who has the lead detective\u2019s cell number.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said President Donald Trump had agreed to grant a visa<\/a> to Javits\u2019 mother, who lives in Ghana, so she can travel to New York.<\/p>\n

This story has been updated with new information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NYPD detectives are investigating whether bullying played a role in the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old Bronx student…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-391264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}