Mamdani says Trump has agreed to grant visa to mother of Ghanian teen killed in Bronx shooting

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has claimed in a social media post that President Donald Trump has agreed to grant a visa to the mother of a 15-year-old immigrant from Ghana who was shot dead earlier this week.

The White House did not immediately respond to an e-mail from The Associated Press confirming the administration would be issuing the visa.

The teen, Javits Frimpong, was on his way to school in a Bronx neighbourhood shortly before 9.30 a.m. on Thursday (October 29, 2026) when he was shot in the abdomen, New York City police said. He was pronounced dead at a hospital later that day. No arrests have yet been made, and the killing remains under investigation.

“The murder of a child is a pain no parent should have to endure, let alone from thousands of miles away,” Mr. Mamdani wrote on Saturday (October 31, 2026) 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.”

“All of New York City is mourning this tragedy,” he said.

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

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

“Our entire borough is mourning a young man who should have had his whole future ahead of him,” Mr. 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’s father, Thomas, is enduring now.”

Foreign Minister Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa said in a post on X that Ghanaian officials in New York are coordinating with local authorities and that the Foreign Ministry “will work tirelessly with U.S. authorities to ensure justice is secured.”

Mr. Trump has clamped down on immigration during his second term, including suspending the processing of visas from 75 countries.