NEW YORK, N.Y. — The mother of a 15-year-old Ghanaian student who was shot to death on his way to school in the Bronx will be allowed to travel to New York, N.Y., to bury her son, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Saturday after a phone call with President Donald Trump.
Mamdani announced on social media that the president agreed to approve her visa right away so she could say goodbye in person. The mayor gave no details on what kind of visa would be issued or how quickly it would be processed. She is still in Ghana.
Javits Frimpong, a 10th grader at DreamYard Preparatory School, was walking through the Claremont section of the Bronx a little before 9:30 a.m. Thursday when a bullet struck him in the abdomen. Officers rushed him to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he later died.
Police have made no arrests. Investigators are looking for as many as three male suspects believed to be teenagers and have not named a motive.
The teen had come to the Bronx from Ghana about a year ago to live with his father, a city cab driver. His father has said the principal told him days before the shooting that two students had been suspended for picking on his son. Police have not tied that bullying to the killing.
Ghana’s top diplomat, Okudzeto Ablakwa, said officials from his country in New York are working with local authorities and pressing for justice, and he has spoken with the father to offer condolences.
Staff from Ghana’s permanent mission in New York have visited the family, and the country’s ambassador in Washington has called for a full and impartial inquiry. The visa decision comes as the administration has tightened immigration, including a pause on visa processing for 75 countries.
The death has hit the city’s Ghanaian community hard, and community members have joined officials in pressing for answers about why a student on his way to class was shot.
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