The mayor's announcement, made before any confirmation from the White House, places the case at the intersection of city grief, federal immigration discretion and a homicide investigation that has yet to produce a suspect.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani says President Donald Trump has agreed to grant a visa to the mother of Javits Frimpong, the 15-year-old Ghanaian boy shot dead in the Bronx, so that she can travel to New York to say goodbye to her son. According to Al Jazeera, Mamdani wrote in a post on X on Saturday that he had spoken with Trump about the case and that the president "has agreed to grant her visa immediately". There was no immediate comment from Trump, and the report offers no detail on the timing or terms of any visa.
The killing itself remains unresolved. CCTV footage of Frimpong's last moments showed him being chased by three other teenagers on Thursday morning as he made his way to school, according to the report. He was shot in the abdomen and died the same day in hospital. Police have said they are investigating, but no arrests had been made at the time of reporting. Thousands of people attended vigils held for the teenager across the city.
The human particulars are stark. The boy had told his father he was bullied at school, and Thomas Frimpong called on the police to help him "find justice for my son". His parents had moved him to the United States a year earlier in the hope of a better life. Congressman Richie Torres, who represents the Bronx, wrote on social media that "our entire borough is mourning a young man who should have had his whole future ahead of him."
The case has also drawn in two governments. Ghanaian Foreign Minister Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa stated on social media that Ghanaian officials are "coordinating with local authorities" and helping Javits's mother with her visa application. The report notes that visa applications from a number of African countries have been severely limited under the Trump administration, which makes the reported intervention notable. Whether it reflects a change in policy or a single discretionary act is not established by the material available.
Mamdani's framing was personal rather than procedural. "The murder of a child is a pain no parent should have to endure, let alone from thousands of miles away," he wrote. The mayor's announcement, made before any confirmation from the White House, places the case at the intersection of city grief, federal immigration discretion and a homicide investigation that has yet to produce a suspect. What is not yet known is when the mother might travel, what conditions attach to the visa, and whether the agreement survives contact with the agencies that must issue it.
