Javits Frimpong, 15, was shot walking to school; no arrests made

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Saturday that President Donald Trump agreed to grant a visa to the mother of Javits Frimpong, a 15-year-old immigrant from Ghana who was shot to death earlier this week in the Bronx. Mamdani announced the agreement in a post on X, writing that he had just gotten off the phone with Trump.

“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,” Mamdani said.

The White House did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press confirming the administration would be issuing the visa.

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 been made, and the killing remains under investigation.

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. Torres wrote on X that Frimpong was on his way to school when he was shot.

“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.”

Ghanaian Foreign Minister Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa said in a post on X that Ghanaian officials in New York are coordinating with local authorities. The foreign ministry, he wrote, “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.