Overview:
A federal immigration officer shot Oscar Belgal, 28, in New York City’s Marble Hill neighborhood on Thursday afternoon, Oct. 8. Belgal was treated for a gunshot wound to the neck before immigration agents reportedly removed him from the hospital. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other elected officials condemned the shooting, which occurred while Belgal’s 5-year-old son was in the car. Eyewitnesses described a chaotic scene as bystanders sought shelter and protesters gathered. The incident remains under investigation.
A federal immigration officer shot a man Thursday afternoon in New York’s Marble Hill neighborhood, according to police, eyewitnesses and the Department of Homeland Security, in an incident that drew swift rebuke from elected officials and a crowd of spontaneous protesters late Thursday night.
The man was treated at a nearby hospital for a gunshot wound to the neck, officials said.
Eyewitnesses described a chaotic scene unfurling on a busy street in Marble Hill — a neighborhood that is legally in Manhattan but connected to The Bronx — around 4 p.m., as a slew of New Yorkers were getting home from work and school. As shots rang out, bystanders sheltered in neighboring businesses, the eyewitnesses said.
New York City officials said the ICE agents were in plainclothes wearing masks and construction vests at the time of the shooting, and video and photos of the moments after showed one agent brandishing an assault rifle, as passersby ducked for cover.
Crowds of protesters and elected officials arrived at the scene in the hours after the shooting and outside the nearby NewYork—Presbyterian Allen Hospital, where the wounded man was taken.
“What happened today was an outrage,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a press conference at the scene late Thursday night. Mamdani confirmed the man’s 5-year-old son was in the car at the time of the shooting.
“When ICE agents opened fire, a 5-year-old child — a 5-year-old child — was in the back seat of that car,” he said. “Thank god that child is physically unharmed.”
The mayor said he spent two hours on the phone with President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin in a failed attempt to get Belgal released. Instead, Mamdani said, ICE agents “whisked him away” from the hospital in Upper Manhattan.
“During the incident, an ICE officer discharged his weapon and the criminal illegal alien was injured,” the statement read. “ICE officers immediately rendered aid. The individual is alive and at a local hospital. The FBI and HSI are on the scene. The incident remains under investigation.”
Late Thursday evening, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch identified the shooting victim as 28-year-old Oscar Belgal. Court records showed he pleaded guilty in 2025 to grand larceny in the fourth degree and had an open charge for criminal possession of a controlled substance stemming from an arrest in 2025.
Eyewitnesses to the shooting spoke to The City Reporter and Documented in the hours after the shooting, recalling the commotion as gunfire erupted in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Iris Rosa, a school therapist, said after she emerged from a nearby shop, she saw a man bleeding on the ground in front of a car, while agents milled around, one holding a small child.
“He was all full of blood,” she said, while the child an agent held was quiet. “How could you do this? What is going on? And then I’m looking at the baby.”
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