Mamdani says Trump agrees to grant visa to mother of Ghanaian teen killed in Bronx shooting

NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a social media post Saturday that after speaking to President Donald Trump, he agreed to grant a visa to the mother of a 15-year-old Ghanaian immigrant who was shot and killed earlier this week.

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

The teenager, Javits Frimpong, was walking to school in a Bronx neighborhood shortly before 9:30 a.m. Thursday when he was shot in the abdomen, New York police said. He was pronounced dead at the hospital later that day. No arrests have yet been made and the murder remains under investigation.

“The murder of a child is a pain no parent should have to endure, let alone 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 agreed to grant her a visa immediately.”

“The entire city of New York mourns this tragedy,” he said.

Frimpong arrived in the Bronx from Ghana a year ago to join his father and start a new life in the United States, according to U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Bronx Democrat.

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

“Our entire district mourns 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’ father, Thomas, is currently enduring.”

Thomas Frimpong described his son as a quiet teenager who spent much of his time on his cell phone. He told reporters that several days before the shooting, he learned his son was being bullied at school.

“It was the director who told me,” said Thomas Frimpong. “He said two guys were bothering my son, so he suspended both guys. My son is at school. He’s innocent, so I call him. I talk to my son, he said ‘Dad, I’m fine.'”

Foreign Minister Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa said in a message on

Trump cracked down on immigration during his second term, including suspending visa processing from 75 countries.