The man shot and wounded by federal immigration agents in Marble Hill last week said he didn’t know the men who ambushed and shot him were U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents until he woke up later in the hospital.
A new motion filed in Brooklyn federal court on behalf of Oscar Belgal includes key details that contradict the Trump administration’s version of events. Belgal claims in his filing Wednesday that the ICE agents involved — most of them masked — did not identify themselves before approaching his vehicle with firearms drawn.
“The men did not identify themselves, show any documentation, or communicate with Oscar in any substantial way,” according to the filing. Last week, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters that the agents identified themselves as they approached Belgal’s vehicle during the Oct. 8 encounter on a busy street. “There was no doubt he would have known who was approaching,” Mullin said.
The petition also states that Belgal “vehemently denies” any relationship with any gang or organized crime group. Senior ICE and DHS officials said Belgal was part of the Trinitarios gang and that was why he was targeted for arrest.
The petition also says Belgal, a 28-year-old Dominican immigrant, received no help from federal agents, even though he pleaded for medical assistance. The petition states Belgal was not trying to ram his vehicle into the officers. Federal officials said Belgal was fired upon after he “cocked his vehicle” and tried to ram the officers.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement that Belgal’s arrest was justified because he was in the country without authorization, and that Belgal had disobeyed orders from ICE agents during the incident and fled law enforcement. The government had until Monday to respond.
The petition calling for Belgal’s immediate release from ICE detention replaces a previous petition filed on Belgal’s behalf in Manhattan shortly after his arrest.
The new petition gives the clearest picture yet of Belgal’s version of the events. Moments before he was shot, Belgal had picked up his 5-year-old son from school and taken him to McDonald’s for a snack, according to the petition.
Belgal parked near his Marble Hill home, but began to pull out when he realized he was in front of a fire hydrant, the petition states. That’s when an armed man dressed in civilian clothes and wearing a black mask “ran toward his vehicle,” according to the new court filing. Several other men followed, wearing masks and holding weapons.
The men — who Belgal said she later learned were ICE agents — did not appear to be law enforcement or identify themselves as immigration agents, the petition states. They did not present him with an arrest warrant, say his name or provide any other substantive explanation about the encounter as they confronted him through his partially rolled down car window, the filing states. One of the officers pointed a gun inside the car, leaving Belgal “terrified” for his life and that of his son, according to the filing.
Belgal’s attorneys said in the motion that a police officer punched the driver’s side window and shattered the window, which exploded in Belgal’s face and arm. The officer then fired at least seven shots at the car while Belgal’s son “cowered in the backseat,” according to the petition.
Marcos Charles, associate executive director of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations wing, alleged last week that Belgal “used his vehicle as a weapon” against the agents as they tried to arrest him. But in the new filing, Belgal’s lawyers said the video footage “clearly shows” that he was trying to move his car, where no police officers were parked at the time, to get away from the officer who was shooting at his vehicle. The lawyers said another car then “came out from behind and blocked the path”.
After a bullet struck Belgal in the neck, he got out of his car and “sought medical assistance, fearing he was dying,” the filing states. His son shouted that the masked men had killed his father, according to the petition.
The petition says the officers threw Belgal to the ground, handcuffed him, pinned him to the car and left him sprawled as he lost consciousness, rather than providing him with medical help. He also accuses ICE agents of taking no action to take him to the hospital – noting that it was NYPD agents who took him to receive medical treatment.
Belgal didn’t realize until he woke up in the hospital that the men who confronted him, guns drawn, were immigration agents, his lawyers said. In his hospital bed, ICE agents handcuffed him, according to the petition.
Doctors told Belgal he needed surgery to remove the bullet and would have to return for surgery next week, the filing states. After he was released from the hospital, immigration officials took him to New Jersey for the night and then to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, his lawyers said.
Last week, a federal judge ordered that Belgal not be removed from the country or transferred outside the New York or New Jersey metropolitan area at this time.
While in ICE detention, Belgal “continually replays in his memory the traumatic events of October 8, with the hysterical cries of his son echoing endlessly in his head,” the petition states.
Belgal’s son did not speak for several days after seeing his father shot and suffers daily nightmares, according to the petition.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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