Make New York Post a Preferred Source The devastated mother of 15-year-old shooting victim Javits Frimpong broke down in tears Wednesday as she spoke about her young son’s murder for the first time since being granted an emergency visa from Ghana.
“I need justice for my child,” Doris Adu Gyamfi sobbed at a press conference arranged by the Rev. Al Sharpton and the family’s attorney, Ben Crump, in Harlem. “I have only one child. I have only one child.”
Gyamfi, who was able to travel to the US after Mayor Zohran Mamdani lobbied President Trump to fast-track her visa, then dissolved into tears.
The moving event came just hours after police arrested 17-year-old Thierno Jalloh in the Oct. 29 murder of Frimpong as he walked to school near East 171st Street and Third Avenue in The Bronx.
The studious teen’s family said his father brought the boy to the Big Apple from Ghana last year so he could live the American dream, and he hoped to become a doctor after serving in the military.
“It’s very difficult for me today,” his sister, Millicent Frimpong, told reporters. “I don’t know how to start, and I’m not sure how I’m going to end. I’m going to read some words from my brother’s journal, how proud he was to be in the United States.
“He wanted to be a physician … as soon as he finished high school he wanted to be in the military. He has three siblings who served in the Army. One is still serving. I’m a veteran.”
She then read his words: “I am from Ghana. My family are my mother Doris, my father Thomas, my auntie Diana, my brothers Kenneth, Jeff, Richard, Anthony, and my sister Millicent.
“My friends are Lobo and Sumaya. School has been good since I came to the United States.”
Police have not disclosed a possible motive for the shooting, but the slain teen’s father, Thomas Frimpong, told The Post that his son had been bullied at school — although it is unclear if that was a factor.
Sharpton and Crump joined the family at National Action Network offices to call for justice for Javits Frimpong and to rail against gun violence.
“The investigation and pursuit of justice should also be about how minors got these guns, who’s selling these guns, and how these guns are getting into the hands of minors,” Sharpton said.
“We are not going to let the Javits case rest until those who used the guns are prosecuted, and where they got the guns from is also investigated.”
Frimpong was shot in the abdomen shortly before 9:30 a.m. and was later pronounced dead at St. Barnabas Hospital. Disturbing video footage captured the teen running and bloodied before he collapsed on the street.
The case remained unsolved until police tracked down Jalloh, who is charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon in the deadly shooting.
Frimpong’s death has left his family looking for answers and demanding justice.
Thomas Frimpong recalled picking his son up at JFK International Airport on Oct. 28, 2025.
“I brought Javits from Ghana to continue his education here in the United States,” he said. “In fact, he was very, very, very excited, and he was living with me.”
He said he was at work when he got the phone call that alerted him about his son’s tragic death.
“Now all I’m saying,” he said Wednesday, “I need justice for my son.”
