Bronx man charged with assaulting ICE agent following shooting of Dominican man with 5-year-old in car

A Bronx man has been charged with assaulting an ICE agent in the aftermath of a Marble Hill shooting in which another agent shot into a car driven by a man who had just picked up his 5-year-old child, officials said.

Liberty Martin, 42, was among a crowd of people who surrounded a Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent about 6:45 p.m. on Oct. 8, "following an incident between federal law enforcement officers and an individual in the Bronx," a release from the office of Jamie McDonald, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said.

About 4 p.m. that day, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot and wounded Oscar Belgal, 28, of the Bronx, as they attempted to arrest him in Marble Hill, near the border of the Bronx and Manhattan, Newsday previously reported. The shooting spawned protests that evening and the following day.

While the ICE agent was surrounded, Martin allegedly grabbed and ripped his clothing before following him to his department-issued vehicle and again grabbing his clothing. Other members of the crowd "then further assaulted [the agent] by pushing him against his vehicle, grabbing his clothing, shoving his head and body into the vehicle, and slamming the vehicle door on him, causing a two-inch laceration to [his] forehead," the U.S. attorney said.

Ariel Werner, Martin’s defense attorney, confirmed he was among the protesters who gathered in the hours after the shooting.

"On Oct. 8, ICE officers shot an unarmed man in the car with his five-year-old son," Werner said in a statement emailed to Newsday. "No one has been charged with any crime for that shooting. Instead, the government has charged Liberty Martin with allegedly ripping an ICE agent's shirt during protests related to the shooting. This shows that the federal government's priority is protecting ICE, not the community."

Martin’s actions recklessly endangered "the special agents on scene and the public they were sworn to protect," HSI Special Agent in Charge Pete Gizas said in a statement.

"This alleged conduct was a direct attack on the rule of law and the safety of our community," Gizas said. "Make no mistake: an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us."

Martin was arrested and charged with physically assaulting an employee of the United States, the release said. If convicted of the charge, he faces a maximum sentence of 8 years in federal prison, as prescribed by Congress.

Homeland Security officials targeted Belgal, a Dominican national, because of his "associations to the Trinitarios gang," which "brutally killed a [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] officer last year," Newsday previously reported.

"Mr. Belgal was associated with a gang in New York,” Marcos Charles, executive associate director of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations said during an Oct. 9 news conference. “Mr. Belgal has evaded law enforcement before when we attempted to arrest him in September."

When Belgal appeared in federal immigration court on Oct. 15, he still had a bullet lodged in his neck, The Associated Press reported. He is scheduled to return to court on Oct. 29.