Whether the church authorized the mural is unresolved in the accounts reported so far. David Miklatski said Javits Frimpong’s family supported his plan, and Frimpong’s uncle, Mohamed Doumouaian, confirmed that support to the New York Post. But an unnamed maintenance worker told the Post that the pastor had said the building was private property and had not given permission. Support from the family does not resolve whether the property owner approved the painting.
What the accounts establish
Police arrested Miklatski on Wednesday on Third Avenue near East 171st Street and charged him with making graffiti and possessing a graffiti instrument, according to police information reported by the Post. Miklatski, 37, is a California artist known as David Sabastian and has more than 460,000 Instagram followers. He told the Post that officers arrived about five minutes after he began drawing.
The worker told the Post that he called police while Miklatski was painting. The Post also reported Miklatski’s account that he contacted Frimpong’s family after learning about the shooting and that the family liked the idea of a mural near the scene. Neither account, as reported, independently confirms whether the church gave permission.
The mural and its reception
The Post reported that the unfinished mural showed Frimpong above a birthday cake with bullets in place of candles. Other elements included a chessboard and pawns, a washing machine containing brains, and Black men shown with chains and padlocks around their heads. Miklatski told the outlet that the imagery was intended to represent people being manipulated, used as pawns and mentally constrained. He said the work was not political commentary, but concerned humanity and spirituality, and was meant to address the thinking behind violent crime.
Some residents objected to the work, the Post reported. Benjamin Richardson, 40, said the chained heads brought slavery to mind and that a portrait of Frimpong would have been more appropriate. The outlet also reported that other community members wanted a portrait rather than a provocative statement. A passer-by said he liked the mural but found the circumstances sad. The unfinished painting remained at the site on Friday, according to the Post.
Frimpong’s death and the community response
Frimpong, 15, was shot in the stomach on Oct. 29 while walking to school near Crotona Park and died from his injuries, The Guardian reported. At the time of that report, police had made no arrests and were seeking three teenage boys in connection with the shooting. Frimpong had arrived in New York from Ghana about a year earlier, his father told the Guardian.
Frimpong’s family led a march joined by hundreds calling for justice, CBS News reported. Investigators have not established whether bullying was connected to the killing. TheGrio reported that Frimpong’s father told detectives his son had been bullied and that two students had recently been suspended. The outlet also reported that an NYPD chief said bullying was one matter investigators were examining, without confirming a connection to the shooting.
Earlier public-art incidents
Weeks before the Bronx arrest, Miklatski put a drawing titled “The MET 2027” on a wall at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and recorded its brief appearance in an Instagram reel, ARTnews reported. The oil pastel work depicted a Met Gala attendee on a staircase, with police in riot gear beating protesters in the foreground.
A mural attributed to Sabastian appeared on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles in September. It measured 40 feet by 12 feet and depicted Jews dancing on caskets, according to The Forward. The outlet reported that it was covered with gray paint by 9 p.m. on the Thursday it appeared.
