Leading New York Democrats expressed anger and demanded curbs on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) violence after a federal officer shot a man driving a car in which his five-year-old son was sitting, sparking fierce protests. At least seven shots were reportedly fired and the man was hit in the neck late on Thursday afternoon as children were coming home from school in the busy Marble Hill neighborhood of New York City. Federal authorities on Friday morning identified Oscar Belgal as the man shot, saying he was undocumented, from the Dominican Republic and had a felony record and gang affiliations.
Marcos Charles, a senior ICE official, said Belgal refused to exit his car when approached by federal officers who were trying to arrest him, and then accelerated, struck two ICE vehicles and drove towards other officers. An ICE officer then shot Belgal and Charles said the wound was “superficial”. Footage showed a man in a high-visibility construction vest, possibly with a badge on a lanyard, carrying an assault-style rifle and standing close to Belgal, who is sat on the street, while another officer appears to hold a hand to his neck and shoulder area.
New York police officers in uniform shortly afterwards carry the man to an unmarked car and lay him in the back seat, handcuffed behind his back. But Kathy Hochul, New York’s governor, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York congresswoman, and Zohran Mamdani, the city’s mayor – all of whom are Democrats – led strong condemnation of ICE’s conduct. Darializa Avila Chevalier, the Democratic New York candidate, rushed to the protests and was knocked over in the chaos as local police and demonstrators clashed.
The wounded man was conscious and hospitalized, authorities said. Mamdani called the incident “unconscionable” and said on Thursday night that ICE, part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), had “whisked him away” from the New York-Presbyterian Allen hospital in upper Manhattan. A similar incident occurred in Texas last month after a man was shot by an ICE officer in Austin and despite a bullet lodged in his back was taken by the federal authorities from a local hospital to ICE detention about 140 miles away.
Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani demanded ICE be abolished. Both Hochul and Mamdani spoke to Donald Trump and Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, by phone on Thursday night. Those negotiations were unsuccessful,” Mamdani told a press conference.
He demanded from the Trump administration that ICE stop its enforcement actions in New York City. ICE has been stepping up arrests all year despite withdrawing massed militarized ranks from Minneapolis in January and adopting a more covert approach to enforcement. Both Hochul and Mamdani demanded that ICE cease enforcement operations in New York and the governor said she expressed outrage to the Trump administration on behalf of all New Yorkers.
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