President John Dramani Mahama says the United States must deal with gun violence and the ease of buying a firearm, after 15-year-old Javits Frimpong was shot dead in New York.
He said it on Thursday, November 5, at a meet-the-press session with the Presidential Press Corps at Jubilee House, after his return to Ghana.
Javits’s mother has arrived in New York and has asked for justice. No arrest has been announced.
“It is not common over the years for several Ghanaians to have been killed in violence in the United States.”
“The issue with Javits Frimpong is, he was so young, 15 years old, and had just been in the United States barely a year to join his father, and this happened,” the President said.
Javits Badu Nkansah Frimpong was shot on the morning of Thursday, October 29, while walking to school in the Bronx. He died at St Barnabas Hospital.
He said the precise cause is still unknown. Some accounts have put it down to bullying.
“Some ascribe it to bullying, but of course the NYPD is investigating it. But two things the American people have to reckon with are the violent nature of their society, especially gun violence,” he said.
He tied that to the constitutional right to bear arms.
“It is part of the amendments in their constitution that give citizens the right to bear arms. So, anybody can go to a gun shop to buy one.”
He also spoke about mental strain, and about people who do not look as if they are in trouble.
“In the world today, there are so many stress factors of modern living, so mental health is becoming a major crisis.”
“Sometimes, someone is stressed, but he is well dressed, and you will think that everything is okay. The day you realise that something is wrong, they may have guns shooting people.”
“So, one of the issues America has to deal with is the level of gun violence in their society,” he said.
Mahama did not add to what detectives have already put on the record. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said on Monday, November 2, that three hooded people in surgical masks chased Javits and shot him, then picked up the shell casings and left on a subway train.
Kenny said detectives were weighing a robbery, a case of mistaken identity, and bullying at school. Police have not said which line they favour, and they have not named a suspect.
Mahama also discussed other Ghanaians killed in the United States, saying the body of a man aged 24 had been discovered at a dumpsite two days before his remarks.
Ghana’s embassy in Washington and its New York mission identified him as Joseph Owusu, a caregiver missing for about two weeks. The mission said on Wednesday that an autopsy was under way; no cause had been stated.
“I don’t believe it is only Ghanaians being killed. I am sure other people are suffering the same fate.”
“So it is something that Americans need to deal with,” Mahama said.
He thanked the Foreign Affairs Ministry for helping Javits’s mother travel to mourn her son. Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister James Gyakye Quayson also received his praise.
Quayson received her in Accra during the President’s absence. Mahama said Ghana’s New York mission had visited the family and was under instructions to provide whatever assistance it could.
The Foreign Affairs Minister has said the government is paying for the mother’s trip. Police in New York have asked anyone with information on Javits’s killing to call Crime Stoppers on 1-800-577-TIPS.
SOURCE: 3news.com