Immigration authorities expressed support for the agents involved after a New York City man was shot while sitting in a vehicle alongside a child believed to be his son, and they pushed back against public statements Mayor Zohran Mamdani had directed at those agents.
At a press conference, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin stated that officers were unaware a child was present in the vehicle when shots were fired, and he further contended that the man — identified as a Dominican national and the intended target of the operation — had placed both the child and the officers at risk.
When ICE officers approached the vehicle in Marble Hill — the northernmost point of Manhattan — on Thursday afternoon, Oscar Belgal, as authorities identified him, remained inside and did not step out.
Prior to the Belgal incident, federal immigration agents had discharged firearms at a minimum of 21 individuals across the country since January 2025, with seven of those encounters proving fatal — a rate that researchers and law enforcement analysts have noted stands well above what is typical for civil enforcement agencies, occurring in the period following President Donald Trump's return to the White House on a platform centered on expanded deportation efforts.
At a press conference, Marcos Charles, a senior ICE official, told reporters that Belgal drove his vehicle into two ICE cars and appeared to be moving in the direction of officers at the moment gunfire was opened. On multiple occasions, footage and other evidence — including material presented in court proceedings — has contradicted early statements put out by ICE or the Department of Homeland Security about separate violent episodes, and one broadcast outlet was unable to corroborate the account given by Charles.
A minor neck injury to Belgal — described as a surface-level wound — was reported by Charles. A detention facility located outside New York state currently holds him.
Police reported that a child of five — Belgal's son — was seated in the rear of the vehicle at the time.
In the three-minute body-worn camera footage released by the New York Police Department, Belgal appears seated beside a vehicle with his hands restrained behind his back, while patches of what appear to be fresh blood are visible on the road surface nearby and multiple plainclothes officers stand in the surrounding area. A high-visibility vest covered the torso of one individual, who also carried a rifle.
Bystanders who had gathered near a corner store directed verbal protests at the agents from the pavement. Four officers took hold of Belgal — two at his arms, two at his legs — and carried him to their vehicle for transport to a hospital, where one officer called out to the others in the back seat to keep pressure on him.
Body-worn camera footage recorded by ICE agents was also set to be made public, according to Mullin.
Belgal, a Dominican national whose presence in the country lacked legal authorisation, had previously avoided an ICE apprehension attempt in September, U.S. officials stated. New York court records show that he entered a guilty plea to fourth-degree grand larceny — an offense involving theft from another individual — and received a five-year probationary term, while a separate matter involving criminal sale of a controlled substance, to which he has entered a not-guilty plea, awaits a December court date.
At a late Thursday press conference near the shooting site, Mamdani — who noted his own background as an immigrant — described ICE as an organisation he viewed as thoroughly compromised, while also disclosing that phone calls he placed to both Trump and Mullin seeking Belgal's release had not produced results.
Mamdani framed the shooting as consistent with what he portrayed as a pattern of ICE operating outside meaningful oversight — pointing to allegations that the agency has generated disorder and done more damage than it has deterred — while Mullin directed his response as an attack on Mamdani personally and on New York's sanctuary policies, which restrict collaboration between city agencies, police, and federal immigration authorities to cases where individuals have been convicted of violent or otherwise serious felonies. Mullin's stated position, expressed publicly on multiple occasions, holds that stepped-up deportation and detention activity directed at foreign nationals would reduce threats to the wider public.
Lawyers from the public defender offices that represented Belgal voiced opposition to the shooting. In a written statement, Legal Aid characterised the shooting as a matter warranting tighter controls on how immigration enforcement agents deploy force, and called on local prosecutors to open an investigation into the conduct of the agents involved.
