Top Homeland Security officials defended ICE agents involved in the shooting of a Dominican man in New York on Thursday, which occurred in the presence of his 5-year-old son.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin accused the slain man, Oscar Bergal, of endangering the life of the child, who was sitting in the back seat of Bergal’s car.
“We didn’t know the child was in the car. I can tell you that, but you know who it was? Oscar. Oscar knew he had a child in his car,” Mullin said during a press briefing Friday at ICE headquarters in Washington, DC.
According to a timeline of events provided during the briefing, ICE agents attempted to arrest Bergal, 28, by using two vehicles to block his car. After refusing orders to exit his car, Bergal accelerated and crashed into the ICE vehicles.
Associate Executive Director of Enforcement and Deportation Operations Marcos Charles said Bergal “armed his vehicle and began to accelerate, heading toward other officers.”
The police responded by firing their weapons, believing “that their lives and those of partners and the general public were in danger,” he added.
Bergal stopped his car after being “shocked superficially by one of the bullets or fragments in the neck,” Charles said. “We arrested him, gave him first aid and then took him to the hospital.”
Body camera footage from NYPD officers who responded to the shooting shows they were the ones who transported Bergal to the hospital to receive medical treatment. The NYPD said it was not involved in Bergal’s immigration arrest.
As of Thursday evening, Bergal was in stable condition, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
The incident sparked public outcry in New York, with Mayor Zohran Mamdani saying Thursday evening that “there is no explanation why federal agents would fire so many bullets at a car with a 5-year-old child in it.”
Protests erupted shortly after the Marble Hill shooting, with five people arrested Thursday evening, according to the New York Police Department. More protests are expected Friday evening.
During the briefing, Mullin said the outrage should be directed “at this criminal” and not at his agency.
According to authorities, Bergal had a previous arrest for grand larceny, to which he pleaded guilty to fourth-degree grand larceny and was sentenced to five years of probation. He also has a pending case for criminal sale of a controlled substance.
Mullin said they were “serving a lawful arrest warrant” when ICE agents arrested Bergal on Thursday. In a habeas petition filed by Bergal’s attorneys seeking his release and obtained by NBC News, his attorneys alleged that ICE agents “did not have a valid arrest warrant for Mr. Bergal.”
Bergal did not appear at the court hearing Friday afternoon. Although he was not required to be present during this first hearing, several family members were present, seated in the front row.
Paige Austin, one of Bergal’s attorneys, said her client still had a bullet in his body and had not been able to speak to his family. He was incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Charles said Bergal escaped police last month when ICE tried to arrest him for deportation.
The ICE shooting in New York coincided with another immigration enforcement incident Thursday in Harrison, New Jersey, that also took place in the presence of children.
DHS told NBC News in a statement that ICE agents were seeking to arrest Jhon Maykel Correa-Sangucho, a Honduran national who they believe is not authorized to be in the country and has committed multiple traffic violations.
Video of the arrest filmed by a bystander shows two children screaming as they cling to a man who ICE agents arrest. A woman is also taken into custody. The two young crying children are seen collapsed on the sidewalk, screaming as they watch the officers complete the arrest and leave.
DHS said Correa-Sangucho was inside his car and refused multiple commands to exit his vehicle during this encounter, but ICE agents were able to get him out of the car.
The woman who was with Correa-Sangucho and a bystander “attempted to obstruct the arrest,” DHS said, adding that they were “under investigation for assaulting, resisting and obstructing federal agents.”
The video does not show any conversation about whether adults could take the children with them to family detention. NBC News asked Mullin during the press conference what the plans were for the children.
“We will give them the option to allow children to accompany them once the scene is secure,” Mullin said.
Gn headline
