A surveillance video shows two people leaving the bag that held Joseph Owusu, 24, on a Canarsie pavement, with no arrest announced by Thursday night.

Published 6 Nov 2026, 13:26 GMTUpdated 6 Nov 2026, 13:36 GMT

4 min read

Joseph Owusu, inset, and surveillance video of the bag on a Canarsie pavement — Joseph Owusu, 24, and surveillance video from Canarsie, Brooklyn

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Surveillance video broadcast by ABC7 shows two people taking a large black duffel bag containing the body of 24-year-old Joseph Owusu from a white sedan and leaving it on a pavement in Canarsie, Brooklyn.

His family and Ghanaian officials have confirmed it was him. Someone collecting scrap metal found the bag on the morning of Friday, October 30, near East 93rd Street and Avenue L.

The footage shows the two people dragging the bag from the boot to the pavement, then driving away.

Surveillance video of the bag being left in Canarsie, Brooklyn. Video: ABC7 New York

The New York Daily News, which also obtained video, reported that they left the bag at about 2 a.m. outside a church on Avenue L near East 94th Street, beside a green rubbish bin.

The paper said Owusu was born in the Bronx to parents who came from Ghana. It said the medical examiner had not determined how he died, and that no arrest had been made by Thursday night.

Video recovered by the paper shows a man loading the bag onto a hand cart that morning and wheeling it to East 93rd Street, where he realised a body was inside.

Before he was identified, police had described the victim as a man who looked to be in his 50s or 60s. Officers were at the corner at about 9:30 a.m..

"The car just pulled up, and a man and a woman got out," Joseph Luckner, who was across the street, told the New York Daily News.

His older brother, Kojo Yeboah, told ABC7 he did not know them.

"No, I don't recognize anybody. I wish, but those people just people I've never seen before," he said.

"I need justice for Joseph. I want the truth to come out, the truth to come out because my brother didn't deserve to die the way he did. He's only 24. He had a lot of living to do," Yeboah said.

What his brother remembers

"My sister last spoke to Joseph that Tuesday, and then Wednesday we kind of didn't hear from him, but we didn't think much of it. Sometimes you call someone and they're like, you don't hear from the day. So Thursday we started to get worried," Yeboah told News 12.

He said his brother's body turned up about 15 minutes from his home.

Owusu played the organ at Ghana United Methodist Church in Allerton, in the Bronx. Daniel Obeng, a member of the church, told News 12 that Owusu grew up there and filled in on the piano when the choir director was away.

"He loved the church. He loved things of God," Yeboah told ABC7. According to the family, he was studying computer science and had a job supporting people with disabilities.

"You just never know tomorrow. So if you're with someone that you love, make sure, like, give them a hug. You just never know," he told News 12.

On Wednesday, November 4, Ghana's mission to the United Nations sent Deputy Permanent Representative Ben Dotsei Malor and Consul-General Anthony El-Adas to the family. Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa joined by telephone and said the government would work with United States authorities.

Police told the family of the death on Saturday, October 31, and said an autopsy was under way.

Police have not publicly connected Owusu's death with the shooting of 15-year-old Javits Frimpong in the Bronx on Thursday, October 29. President John Dramani Mahama said on Thursday that the United States must confront gun violence after that killing.

Araba IncoomAraba Incoom writes on multiple topics with a vast knowledge across different sector. You can almost call me an AI, after all, my initials are Araba Incoom.

Joseph Owusu: CCTV shows two people dumping his body in Brooklyn

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