President Donald Trump has agreed to grant an immediate travel visa to the mother of Javits Frimpong, a 15-year-old boy originally from Ghana who was shot and killed on his way to school in the Bronx earlier this week, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Saturday.
“The murder of a child is a pain no parent should have to endure, let alone from thousands of miles away,” Mamdani posted 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.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.
Frimpong was shot around 9:30 a.m. on Thursday near Crotona Park in the Bronx, according to police.
Officers who responded found Frimpong with a gunshot to his abdomen, and drove him to St. Barnabas Hospital in their patrol car, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Authorities still have not named or described any suspects, or said what led to the shooting.
Frimpong’s father, Thomas Frimpong, told Gothamist that his son came to the United States from Ghana to live with him last year.
In a post on X on Saturday, Ghanaian Foreign Minister Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa thanked Mamdani and said he had assigned officials from his ministry to assist Frimpong’s mother — whom he identified as Doris Adu Gyamfi — with the visa application process. He added that the administration of Ghanaian President John Mahama would pay the full cost of her travels and “stands ready to contribute towards a dignifying funeral.”
Groups representing the Ghanaian diaspora are calling for answers about Frimpong’s killing, as well as greater engagement from city leaders.
The Ghana Diaspora Public Affairs Collective says that although the Bronx has been a haven for Ghanaians, there have been other violent acts affecting members of the diaspora in the borough.
An elderly Ghanaian husband and wife were beaten and robbed at gunpoint while waiting for a bus on Gun Hill Road just days before Frimpong was shot, the group said. And in January, a 53-year-old Ghanaian man was fatally stabbed while walking to work, according to the group.
“These are separate incidents, and there is no established evidence that they were connected or motivated by the victims’ Ghanaian identity,” the group said in a statement. “Together, however, they have intensified concerns about safety among Ghanaian families who have built their lives in the Bronx. GHPAC calls on city leaders to engage directly with the community, listen to its concerns, and ensure victims and their families have access to appropriate support.”
Sam Raskin, a spokesperson for Mamdani, said the mayor called the Frimpongs on Friday. Raskin also said the Office of Community Safety funded and coordinated the deployment of grief counselors, outreach specialists and other resources to the neighborhood.
“This is a devastation that doesn’t just affect this family,” Mamdani said in an interview posted to social media on Friday. “It devastates a community. This child was only here for a year. It devastates a diaspora; it devastates an entire neighborhood.”
In a statement on Friday, Ablakwa said he had spoken to Thomas Frimpong directly and “conveyed the condolences of the government and people of Ghana.”
“On my instructions, officials of our Permanent Mission in New York have visited the family and coordinating with local authorities,” Ablakwa’s statement read. “The Foreign Ministry will work tirelessly with US authorities to ensure justice is secured.”
