The shooting happened just after 4 p.m. Thursday in Marble Hill, a Bronx neighborhood, where ICE officers were running a targeted enforcement operation to arrest 28-year-old Oscar Belgal, a Dominican national. DHS says Belgal has a prior grand larceny conviction and arrests on record for assault, robbery, drug possession and weapons possession, and alleges ties to the Trinitarios street gang. NYPD records show the city arrested him in December 2023 and released him days later — a release DHS blames on New York's sanctuary policies.
During the arrest attempt, an ICE agent opened fire. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at least one agent discharged seven rounds, striking Belgal in the neck below his left ear. A 5-year-old boy believed to be his son was in the back seat of the SUV; the child was not hurt and was placed with a family member. A law enforcement source told CNN the wound was a graze and not life-threatening. DHS said its officers immediately rendered aid, that Belgal is alive at a local hospital, and that the FBI and HSI are on the scene with the incident under investigation. The agency has not said what prompted the shooting.
Bullet holes in the rear window of the SUV Belgal was in when the ICE agent fired. (Reuters)
LiveNOW from FOX reports on the Bronx ICE shooting and Mamdani's response.
By late evening, hundreds of protesters had gathered outside NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, chanting "ICE off our streets" and "No justice, no peace." Police put up barricades; officers and demonstrators shoved each other, some protesters threw water bottles, and several arrests were made.
Mamdani held a late-night news conference near the scene, telling reporters he had spent roughly two hours on the phone with Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin pressing for Belgal's release — and that the talks failed. "I made clear to the president, to the secretary, our request that ICE agents leave the scene entirely, as well as the demand that ICE stop its enforcement actions in New York City," he said, adding, "This city wants ICE out. We want ICE out of our city, ICE out of our schools, ICE out of our hospitals, ICE out of our streets, ICE away from our kids." He called ICE "rotten to its core" and said the agency "undermines public safety." Some protesters at his own press conference shouted that he was "complicit."
Mamdani said unmarked ICE vehicles later removed Belgal from the hospital and that the wounded man had been taken from NYPD custody into ICE custody. Gov. Kathy Hochul said she also called Trump and Mullin, urged a halt to ICE operations in the state, and asked that any body camera footage be released "so we can establish the facts and get to the truth."
Reuters notes federal immigration agents have shot at least 21 people since Trump returned to office, seven fatally. The White House has not publicly responded to Mamdani's demand; the release request was denied on the call.