An ICE officer shot and killed a man in New York on Thursday while his 5-year-old child was in the car, officials said, angering protesters and the city’s mayor who called it an “outrage.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the shooting occurred around 4 p.m. during a “targeted enforcement operation” as federal agents searched for a “criminal illegal alien from the Dominican Republic” who had a prior conviction for robbery.
“During the incident, an ICE agent discharged his weapon and the illegal alien criminal was injured,” the department said, without naming the victim.
The man who was shot was identified as Oscar Belgal, 28, according to the New York Police Department, four police sources and previous court records.
At least one ICE agent fired seven shots and the man was hit in the neck, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference Thursday evening, as protesters shouted nearby.
The injured man was transported by New York police to a hospital in stable condition after the shooting, she said.
An NYPD surveillance camera captured part of the encounter but not the shooting, she said.
The video shows the person who was shot backing into a parking space, a plainclothes federal law enforcement officer approaches the driver’s side with a gun drawn, and a second officer approaches the driver’s side headlight, she said.
“The vehicle then begins to move forward and exits the camera’s field of view,” Tisch said.
That car was later found with gunshot damage to the front windshield and rear window shattered, and an ICE vehicle was found with damage to its left front panel and a disconnected lower panel, she added.
Video recorded by a passerby shows the injured man sitting on the ground, handcuffed and speaking to police.
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Mamdani says ICE shooting of man was ‘a scandal’
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Two 911 calls were made about shots fired, and a federal agent called 911 asking for the fire department, then the New York Police Department, she said.
NYPD officers responding to an unrelated call in the area also heard the gunshots and responded, Tisch said.
“When they arrived, they encountered several men wearing various outfits, some wearing construction vests, masks and at least one carrying a long gun,” Tisch said.
The person shot was handcuffed and sitting on the ground, she said. He was shot in the neck, below the left ear, she added.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned ICE as “rotten to the core” and said the agency, which was criticized for its tactics and immigration crackdown during the Trump administration, acted with impunity.
“There is no explanation for these tactics. There is no explanation for federal agents firing so many bullets into a car that had a 5-year-old child in it,” Mamdani said. “There is no explanation.”
Mamdani said the man’s child was in the back seat and physically unharmed. The child is believed to be the man’s son, Tisch said.
The shooting happened in the Marble Hill neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, near the Bronx, Mamdani said. He described it as a residential area.
“We’re right next to a subway and ICE’s pretext is, in their words, to keep this country safe,” Mamdani said. “How is it possible to keep anyone safe, as the police commissioner told you, to have individuals wearing construction vests and masks with long guns? »
“Residents don’t know if they are law enforcement officers or if they are just attacking someone in the street,” he said.
The person who was shot had been arrested twice before in New York, Tisch said. One, in 2023, was for grand larceny and he pleaded guilty to fourth-degree grand larceny and was placed on probation for five years, she said.
The other involved the criminal sale of a controlled substance in 2025, and that case is still pending, she said.
DHS said the man who was shot had ties to the Trinitarios gang.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said she spoke with Trump and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin about the shooting Thursday evening, urging them to end ICE enforcement operations in the state.
“I have also requested that all body camera footage of the shooting be made public so that we can establish the facts and uncover the truth,” she said.
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