ICE shoots man in New York City during 'targeted enforcement'

A man alleged by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be a gang member in the country illegally was shot and wounded by at least one federal agent Thursday on the border of Manhattan and the Bronx, city and federal officials said.

At a news conference late Thursday at the scene, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch identified the man as Oscar Belgal, 28. The shooting occurred about 4 p.m. in the Marble Hill neighborhood, according to the NYPD.

Belgal was in an SUV with a 5-year-old boy. The child was unharmed and with a relative, said Tisch, who noted that city police weren't involved in the operation but heard the shots and responded. 

Tisch said Belgal was pulling into a parking space when a federal officer in plainclothes approached with gun drawn, followed by another federal officer who also wasn't in uniform. Belgal started to pull the car forward, and then at least one of the officers fired seven rounds, hitting the man below his left ear, Tisch said.

Tisch said that an NYPD security camera had recorded some of the events leading up to the gunfire, but not the shooting itself.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, posted on X that "an ICE officer discharged his weapon and the criminal illegal alien was injured. ICE officers immediately rendered aid. The individual is alive and at a local hospital."

Homeland Security officials elaborated more on their version of events at a news conference led by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Friday morning, where they accused Belgal of trying to flee investigators from the Homeland Security Investigations agency. 

An earlier statement from DHS said agents were seeking to arrest Belgal, a Dominican national with "associations to the Trinitarios gang," which "brutally killed a [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] officer last year."

"This individual yesterday decided to not comply with lawful orders given by federal law enforcement officers, ICE officers, good men and women that are out there every day enforcing immigration laws," said Marcos Charles, executive associate director of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, adding, "Mr. Belgal was a target of an HSI investigation. Mr. Belgal was associated with a gang in New York. Mr. Belgal has evaded law enforcement before when we attempted to arrest him in September."

Charles said Belgal "weaponized his vehicle and proceeded to accelerate, going towards other officers."

"Our officers, using their training and believing that their life and the life of the general public was in danger, used their training and fired weapons," Charles said.

Earlier accounts said one agent had fired their weapon. On Friday, Mullin declined to say how many officers opened fire toward Belgal, who is being held at an undisclosed detention center outside New York.

Mullin also said his agents weren't aware of a child in the vehicle. 

"But do you know who was? Oscar [Belgal]. Oscar knew he had a child in his car," Mullin said. "Oscar chose to accelerate at a high rate of speed and ram two different vehicles as it appears to be going towards officers."

Mullin said the agents were wearing body-worn cameras but declined to say whether the footage would be released.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who joined Tisch at the news conference on Thursday, said he spoke with President Donald Trump and Mullin for two hours after the shooting in an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate the man's release.

Mullin, at the Friday news conference, said he and Trump spoke to Mamdani and offered to hand over Belgal to the NYPD if it would prosecute him locally.

"The mayor once again said we will not be detaining him." Mamdani did not immediately respond to that claim.

The shooting has sparked a wave of outrage from New York's Democratic officials.

In a statement late Thursday, Gov. Kathy Hochul said: "There is still much we don’t know about what happened in Marble Hill. But initial reports indicate ICE agents fired into a vehicle with a five-year-old child inside. Any trained law enforcement officer knows how easily that could have ended in tragedy. By the grace of God, that child appears to have escaped without physical injury."

Belgal had been arrested on a robbery charge in 2023, later pleaded guilty to grand larceny and was sentenced to probation, Tisch said, adding that he later was arrested on a drug-sale charge that hasn't yet been resolved. Electronic court records show that Belgal pleaded not guilty in the drug case. 

Mamdani said ICE agents conducted their operation in construction uniforms and masks when "school had just gotten out" and "the street was crowded with families and children."

Video shot by a witness at the scene shows a man in a white tank top lying on the street with his hands cuffed behind his back. Multiple members of law enforcement sporting badges are visible in the video, including one dressed in a neon safety vest who held a large firearm pointed toward the sky as he told bystanders to "back up."

The shooting sparked immediate protests near the scene. Photos from The Associated Press taken at the scene show a crowd gathered near a silver SUV flanked by yellow police tape. Protesters held signs decrying ICE.

The damaged car sat blocking the roadway with small holes in two of its windows. Tisch, at the Thursday conference, said the shooting left the car with a bullet entry point on its front windshield and an exit point in one of its rear windows.

Five people were detained and issued tickets for a range of offenses including disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, harassment and obstruction of governmental administration, according to the NYPD.

Witness Cynthia Michel told reporters at the scene that she heard several shots from her nearby apartment.

"He was screaming that they’re going to kill him, that he’s going to die, he doesn’t want to die," Michel said of the man who was shot. ... "The 5-year-old boy was screaming for his father, screaming, ‘Why are you guys killing my father? Why are you guys killing my father?’ "

Erika Gonzalez, 55, was blocked with her 16-year-old daughter from getting home by police barricades.

"Whatever the reason is, the fact somebody got shot in this area. ... It's scary," Gonzalez told Newsday. "We walk by every day."

Newsday's Matthew Chayes and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Clarification: Belgal's last name was later reported to be "Oscar Bergal." That was later confirmed to be wrong and his last name is Belgal. The story has been updated to accurately reflect his last name.