Doris Adu Gyamfi, the mother of a 15-year-old Ghanaian boy fatally shot in New York, has arrived in the city to attend his funeral and seek justice, six days after he was killed on his way to school.
- Doris Adu Gyamfi has arrived in New York, six days after her 15-year-old son, Javits Frimpong, was fatally shot in the Bronx.
- She travelled after President Donald Trump agreed to grant her a visa following a request from New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
- Ghana’s government covered her travel costs and said it was prepared to contribute to the funeral.
- Adu Gyamfi called for justice. New York police had not announced an arrest as of Wednesday, according to Ghanaian reporting.
Her son, Javits Badu Nkansah Frimpong, was shot in the Bronx on 29 October. “I want justice for my son, that is all,” Gyamfi said after arriving in the United States. She said he had hoped to become a doctor.
Gyamfi was able to travel after US President Donald Trump agreed to grant her a visa following a request from New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani said he had spoken to Trump about allowing her to attend her son’s funeral.
Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa later said the visa had been processed on an expedited basis.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that Gyamfi had left Ghana for New York, where relatives were mourning her son.
Ghana’s government said it would cover her travel costs and provide the family with support, including legal and consular assistance. The country’s foreign ministry has also called for a thorough investigation and said it would work with US authorities to pursue accountability.
Police are examining several possible motives
Frimpong was walking to school in the Bronx when he was shot. He had moved from Ghana to New York about a year earlier to live with his father, according to reports from the Associated Press and local US media.
New York detectives are investigating whether the shooting involved a robbery, mistaken identity or bullying at school, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.
Police have not announced a motive or publicly identified suspects. Frimpong’s father has said the school told him his son had been bullied, but police have not established a link between that allegation and the killing.
The case has drawn attention across Ghana and among its diaspora. The United States was the largest single destination for Ghanaian emigrants in 2024, with an estimated 258,000 Ghana-born people living there, according to UN migration data cited by the Migration Policy Institute.
