‘He never got the chance’: Family mourns 24-year-old Ghanaian musician found dead in Brooklyn

Joseph Owusu dreamed of pursuing computer science before his life was cut short. His brother says the family is struggling to understand the circumstances of his death.

A 24-year-old Ghanaian musician whose body was discovered inside a duffel bag on a Brooklyn sidewalk has been identified as Joseph Owusu, a church-going young man whose family says he dreamed of pursuing computer science.

Owusu’s body was found on Oct. 30 near East 93rd Street and Avenue L in Canarsie. Surveillance footage reviewed by the New York Daily News reportedly shows two people removing a large musical instrument case from a car and leaving it near a church around 2 a.m. Police have not announced any arrests. The New York City Medical Examiner has yet to determine Owusu’s cause of death.

Born in the Bronx to parents who immigrated from Ghana, Owusu was involved in the Ghanaian Methodist church in the Bronx, where he played the organ and piano. His older brother, Koho Yeboah, described him as an ambitious young man.

“He wanted to pursue computer science, but he never got the chance,” Yeboah told the Daily News. He also expressed disbelief over the circumstances surrounding his brother’s death, saying the family did not know who could have committed such an act.

Surveillance footage reportedly shows a scrap collector initially finding the case and loading it onto a handcart. After realizing it contained a body, he wheeled it away from the original location. Witnesses who saw the case being abandoned said they did not realize it contained a person. One witness, Joseph Luckner, said he initially assumed the people were disposing of trash.

Yeboah connected his brother’s killing to the recent fatal shooting of 15-year-old Javits Frimpong, another young Ghanaian whose death has shaken the community. Frimpong, who had immigrated from West Africa to live with his father in the Bronx, was shot in the abdomen in the Mott Haven neighborhood. His killing occurred one day before Owusu’s body was discovered. Suspects in Frimpong’s shooting also remained at large, according to the report.

Yeboah said the two deaths represent young lives taken before they had the opportunity to fulfill their ambitions. “This is tough, especially for Ghanaian immigrants,” he said. Ghanaian actor Nana Tornado also paid tribute to Owusu in an Instagram post, expressing grief over his death and recalling plans they had to meet around Thanksgiving.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by theGrio (@thegrio)