President Donald Trump will immediately grant a visa to Doris Adu Gyamfi, the mother of Javits Frimpong, a 15-year-old Ghanaian immigrant shot and killed last week in the Bronx. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the decision Saturday after speaking with Trump by phone.
Mayor Mamdani said on X: "The murder of a child is a pain no parent should have to endure, let alone from thousands of miles away." He added that Frimpong's mother "deserves to say goodbye to her son in person."
Frimpong was shot in the abdomen shortly before 9:30 a.m. Thursday while heading to school in the Bronx. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. Police have made no arrests, and the investigation remains open.
Frimpong arrived from Ghana about one year ago to live with his father, Thomas Frimpong, who described his son as a quiet teenager. Days before the shooting, Thomas Frimpong said the school principal told him two students were bullying Javits and had been suspended. "My son is at school. He's innocent, so I call him. I talk with my son, he said 'dad, I'm okay,'" Frimpong said.
U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democrat representing New York, expressed condolences, saying "Our entire borough is mourning a young man who should have had his whole future ahead of him." Torres added: "Every child in the Bronx deserves to walk to school without fearing for their life."
Ghanaian Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa welcomed Trump's decision, saying on X that Ghanaian officials in New York are coordinating with local authorities and the foreign ministry "will work tirelessly with U.S. authorities to ensure justice is secured."
