City police said a federal immigration officer fired seven rounds and hit Oscar Belgal in the neck in Marble Hill on Thursday while a 5-year-old was in the car. The child was unharmed.
A federal immigration officer shot a Dominican man in the neck on Thursday afternoon in the Marble Hill section of northern Manhattan as a 5-year-old boy sat in the car, the Associated Press reported. City police identified the man as Oscar Belgal, 28. He was treated at a hospital and survived.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Belgal was pulling into a parking space when a federal officer in plain clothes approached with a gun drawn, followed by a second plain-clothes officer. Belgal started to pull the car forward, Tisch said, and at least one officer then fired seven rounds, hitting him below his left ear. The child was unharmed and with a relative, she said. City police were not part of the operation but heard the shots and responded.
The Department of Homeland Security said agents were trying to arrest Belgal in a targeted enforcement operation and that he rammed their vehicles as they tried to box in his car on Marble Hill Avenue. NBC New York reported that DHS alleges he is connected to the Trinitarios street gang and that sources described prior arrests. The Bronx Times, citing the DHS statement, said he had a prior conviction for grand larceny.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani called for ICE to be abolished after the shooting, AP reported. Demonstrators chanted at the scene and marched to the hospital, where a crowd blocked an intersection. AP said some protesters shoved barricades and threw water bottles as police tried to keep a lane open for ambulances. NBC said further protests were expected at Foley Square on Friday.
The accounts disagree on whether Belgal was parking or trying to ram the officers. Neither AP nor NBC reported a completed internal finding on the use of force.
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- Zohran Mamdani said the shooting was further confirmation of what critics have long argued about ICE.
- Demonstrators at the scene chanted for ICE to leave the streets, the Associated Press reported.
- The Department of Homeland Security said Belgal rammed agents' vehicles during the stop.