Beyond the outrage: Who remembers the victims when the headlines disappear?

The death of a person under controversial circumstances often becomes a national conversation. News reports emerge, social media is flooded with reactions, families demand justice, and authorities are pressed for answers.

But as the days turn into weeks and public attention shifts to the next trending issue, what happens to the stories left behind?

The 2020 killing of George Floyd in the United States demonstrated how video evidence, public scrutiny, and sustained pressure can bring attention to a case and be followed by criminal accountability. His killer, former police officer Derek Chauvin, was arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced to prison.

The death of 15-year-old Ghanaian Javits Frimpong in the Bronx, New York, on October 29, raises a question that deserves more than a passing headline: when the outrage subsides, who continues asking questions on behalf of the victims and their families?

Javits was allegedly shot while walking to school, with accounts from his father indicating that the teenager had previously experienced bullying and had raised concerns with school authorities.

His death has since sparked grief and calls for justice, placing renewed attention on questions of child safety, school responsibility and gun violence in American neighbourhoods.

The grief surrounding Javits Frimpong’s death was compounded by another tragedy involving a Ghanaian national in the Bronx.

Reports emerged on November 3, that 24-year-old Joseph Owusu, an organist in the Ghana United Methodist Church – the Bronx, who had reportedly been missing for about two weeks, had been found dead at a dumpsite in the Bronx.

His death has deepened concerns and sorrow within the Ghanaian community in New York. Although there is no connection between the two incidents, the deaths of the two young Ghanaians within days of each other have brought renewed attention to the safety and welfare of members of the diaspora.

The Role of Social and Traditional Media

The case of Javits Frimpong also highlights the importance of sustained media attention in cases involving the loss of lives in areas that are allegedly gang-popular and violence-prone. Particularly in ensuring that investigations, arrests and eventual prosecutions are followed beyond the initial wave of public outrage.

Reporting a death is only the beginning. Establishing what happened, tracking investigations, monitoring prosecutions, and demanding answers are equally important responsibilities of journalism.

The support offered to the family of the deceased in the form of seeking justice, financial contributions, and awareness has been made louder through social media.

Support and expressions of agitation through demonstrations have been around since the time of Martin Luther King Jnr. Yet social media makes the voices of activists even louder and far-reaching. This is truly one of the positive aspects of social media.

Some celebrities and popular figures have expressed their views on the unfortunate Javits Frimpong incident, as more details of the case surfaced.

Ghanaian rapper Medikal, born Samuel Adu Frimpong, on his X page, entreated Ghanaians living abroad to return home if life goes untoward, further highlighting the dangers of living outside one’s home country, especially in violence-prone neighbourhoods.

“To all my brothers and sisters abroad, if ebi long for outside, come home like my brother Tee Flow just did. We are starting the #Brafie program now”, Medikal said.

Bronx-born American Rapper Cardi B, real name Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, has also weighed in on the issue, stressing that she would never raise her children in a neighbourhood like the Bronx, which she describes as unsafe.

American singer and businesswoman Robyn Rihanna Fenty, popularly known as Rihanna, also donated an amount of money to the father to a GoFundMe campaign for the family of Javits. There have been other donations from activists and sympathisers all over America and in other parts of the world, amounting to US$ 890,215 as of November 5, 2026, with a target of US$ 1.1million

The cases of Javits Frimpong and George Floyd vary in many ways aside from their 6-year interval. One was a result of racism against black people, and the other was malice in one of the neighbourhoods where ammunition is sold in Walmart.

What happened to the victims cannot be undone, but the lessons learnt must not be forgotten. Ghanaians and other immigrants can die anywhere, in or out of their home country. The solution is to prioritise safety, particularly of young people, and to treat each other with respect and dignity, being mindful of the consequences of our actions

Neighbourhoods can have 24-hour surveillance, as in the case of the Bronx, and murders will happen. Because it’s not about who is watching, it’s about who holds that gun and what they choose to do with it.

And it’s not simply about minding your own business and staying out of trouble, because as rapper Cardi B put it, “People always tell you as a kid, ‘If you mind your business, nobody will fk with you,’ and that is a muthafkin’ lie.”

As for the murderers, the hope is that they get found and pay for their crimes, because no one deserves to lose their lives because of another person’s anger issues.