Mamdani says Trump agrees to grant visa to mother of Ghanian teen killed in Bronx shooting
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on Saturday in a social media post that after talking to President Donald Trump, he has agreed to grant a visa to the mother of a 15-year-old immigrant from Ghana who was shot to death earlier this week.
The White House did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press confirming the administration would be issuing the visa.
The teen, Javits Frimpong, was on his way to school in a Bronx neighborhood shortly before 9:30 a.m. Thursday when he was shot in the abdomen, New York City police said. He was pronounced dead at a hospital later that day. No arrests have yet been made, and the killing remains under investigation.
“The murder of a child is a pain no parent should have to endure, let alone from thousands of miles away,” Mamdani wrote Saturday on X. “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,” he said.
Frimpong arrived in the Bronx from Ghana a year ago to be with his father and begin a new life in the United States, according to U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democrat from the Bronx.
Frimpong was on his way to school when he was shot, Torres wrote on X.
“Our entire borough is mourning a young man who should have had his whole future ahead of him,” Torres said. “Every child in the Bronx deserves to walk to school without fearing for their life, and no parent should ever have to endure what Javits’s father, Thomas, is enduring now.”
Thomas Frimpong described his son as a quiet teen who spent much of his time on his cellphone. He told reporters that several days before the shooting he learned his son was being bullied at school.
“It was the principal who told me,” Thomas Frimpong said. “He said two guys are disturbing my son so he has suspended the two guys. My son is at school. He’s innocent, so I call him. I talk with my son, he said ‘dad, I’m OK.’ ”
Foreign Minister Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa said in a post on X that Ghanaian officials in New York are coordinating with local authorities and that the foreign ministry “will work tirelessly with U.S. authorities to ensure justice is secured.”
Trump has clamped down on immigration during his second term, including suspending the processing of visas from 75 countries.