New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on Saturday that President Donald Trump has agreed to grant an immediate visa to the mother of a 15-year-old boy from Ghana who was shot dead on his way to school in the Bronx. Mamdani said he spoke to Trump by telephone and that the president agreed to let the boy’s mother travel to the United States so she can say goodbye to her son in person.
Javits Frimpong was shot in the abdomen shortly before 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, October 29, while walking to school near Crotona Park in the Claremont section of the Bronx. Police said he was taken to hospital but died from his injuries later that day. No arrests have been announced, and police are searching for three teenage boys, aged 16 to 18, in connection with the killing.
“The murder of a child is a pain no parent should have to endure, let alone from thousands of miles away,” Mamdani wrote in a post on X on Saturday. “Javits Frimpong’s mother deserves to say goodbye to her son in person. I just got off the phone with President Trump and he has agreed to grant her visa immediately. All of New York City is mourning this tragedy.”
Mamdani’s announcement matters because it cuts across one of the sharpest divides in American politics: an immigration crackdown ordered from the White House, and a grieving family asking for one exception so a mother can attend her son’s funeral. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Associated Press and Gothamist, and Mamdani’s office did not specify what kind of visa would be issued or how it would be processed.
A year in America, ended on the walk to school
Javits had arrived in the Bronx from Ghana about a year ago to join his father, Thomas Frimpong, a taxi driver who moved to New York from Ghana in 2000. The boy was a 10th-grade student at DreamYard Preparatory School, and his father told reporters he had brought his son to the United States hoping to give him a better life.
According to US Representative Ritchie Torres, a Democrat from the Bronx, Javits had reached the Bronx a year ago. His father told the Daily News that the day before the shooting had marked his son’s one-year anniversary in the United States. On Thursday morning, the boy left for school and never arrived.
Surveillance video showed the teenager running from three teenagers dressed in black and wearing masks, according to reports of the police account. Police said it was unclear what led to the shooting. His father has said Javits had previously complained about being bullied at school, and told reporters he believed he knew who was responsible, though police have not confirmed a motive.
Community grief has poured out since the killing. Residents held a vigil for the teenager, and tributes have come from neighbours and public figures alike, as the Bronx community rallied around a family that had come to America for safety and a fresh start.
Ghana steps in to bring the mother to New York
Ghana’s government moved quickly alongside the visa announcement. Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said Ghana would cover the full travel costs of the boy’s mother, Doris Adu Gyamfi, who lives in Kumasi, so she can travel to New York for her son’s funeral.
Ablakwa said he had spoken with Gyamfi on Friday and assigned officials from the foreign ministry to assist her with the visa application process. He also said Ghana’s Permanent Mission in New York had visited the family, and that he had conveyed condolences from Ghana’s President John Mahama to the boy’s father.
Ghanaian officials in New York are coordinating with local authorities, Ablakwa said, adding that the ministry would work with US authorities to ensure justice is secured for the teenager. Gyamfi is expected to travel to New York in the coming days, according to Ghanaian media reports.
What remains uncertain
Until the visa is actually in the mother’s hands, the promise remains a promise, as Gothamist noted in its reporting. Neither Mamdani’s office nor the White House has publicly confirmed the visa category, the timetable, or whether the usual processing hurdles for travellers from Ghana have been formally waived.
That uncertainty sits against the backdrop of Trump’s second-term immigration crackdown, which has included suspending visa processing from 75 countries. An emergency visa granted at the president’s direction would be an exception to that policy, made for a mother who wants only to bury her child.
Police, meanwhile, are still hunting the three teenagers sought in connection with the shooting, and the investigation into why a 15-year-old boy was chased and shot on his way to school continues. For now, the clearest confirmed facts are the killing itself, the mayor’s announcement, and Ghana’s pledge to pay the mother’s fare — while the family waits for the document that would let her say goodbye.
