ICE agents shoot man in the Bronx during immigration enforcement operation while his 5-year-old was in the vehicle
Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot 28-year-old Oscar Belgal, a Dominican national, during a targeted enforcement operation in New York City's Marble Hill neighborhood in the Bronx. A 5-year-old child was in the back seat of Belgal's Honda CRV at the time of the shooting. Belgal was wounded and taken into federal custody; his attorneys subsequently filed a legal challenge to his detention in federal court.
Two sources · Thin corroboration
ICE agents approached Belgal's parked vehicle with guns drawn during a daylight enforcement operation on a busy street, according to surveillance footage released by the New York City Police Department. Federal officials said Belgal accelerated his vehicle into the agents and a car ahead of him before agents opened fire. Surveillance video released by NYPD shows plainclothes officers approaching the car and one agent punching the driver's side window before shots were fired off-camera. The moment of the shooting itself is not captured in any publicly released footage.
Belgal sustained a bullet wound to the neck, with a bullet still lodged there as of Sunday, as well as a shoulder wound from shattered glass. His attorneys, the Legal Aid Society and Make the Road New York, said he was held in solitary confinement, urgently needed surgery he had not yet received, and that the left side of his face was numb with difficulty hearing in his left ear. A federal judge, U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken, ordered that Belgal remain in the country pending legal proceedings after his attorneys filed a habeas corpus petition arguing he was arrested without a valid warrant.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin described Belgal's record as including charges of felony robbery, felony assault, felony larceny, weapons possession, arson, possession of stolen property, drug charges, and gang affiliation with the Trinitarios. Mullin said Belgal had previously fled from officers in September and was connected to an investigation into the shooting of a Customs and Border Protection officer. Court records cited by CNN show Belgal pleaded guilty in 2023 to fourth-degree grand larceny and received five years of probation, and had a pending drug case. Mullin said ICE had issued an immigration detainer after an earlier arrest, but that New York City released Belgal rather than transferring him to federal custody, and he blamed the city's sanctuary policies for the situation.