ICE Agent Shoots Man in NYC Marble Hill, Sparking Outrage

A federal immigration officer shot a 28-year-old Dominican man in the neck during an enforcement operation in New York City’s Marble Hill neighborhood on Thursday afternoon, as a 5-year-old child sat in the vehicle, according to officials. The man, identified by the NYPD as Oscar Belgal, survived and was hospitalized in stable condition before federal authorities took him into custody — an incident that City Hall and federal officials describe in sharply conflicting terms.

What Happened

According to Gothamist, at least one ICE officer fired seven rounds around 4 p.m. near 2 Marble Hill Ave., striking Belgal below his left ear. Police recovered at least seven shell casings at the scene. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said city surveillance footage showed a plainclothes federal officer approaching the driver’s-side window of Belgal’s gray Honda CR-V with his gun drawn, followed by a second plainclothes officer. The vehicle then moved forward, out of the camera’s view — and the shooting itself was not captured on the NYPD camera.

The 5-year-old boy, believed to be Belgal’s son, was inside the vehicle and was later located unharmed in the care of a family member, Tisch said. Two 911 calls reported gunfire at 4:04 p.m., and a federal agent also called 911 requesting the fire department and then police.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Belgal was the target of a “targeted enforcement operation,” describing him as an immigrant from the Dominican Republic with a prior grand larceny conviction. DHS did not initially say what prompted the officer to fire.

Competing Federal and City Accounts

The accounts diverge sharply on what drove the shooting. Tisch’s police account, as NBC News reported, describes officers approaching with guns already drawn. By contrast, ICE executive associate director Marcos Charles said federal officers used vehicles to block Belgal in, that he refused lawful orders to exit, that he drove into two government vehicles and “weaponized his vehicle” by accelerating toward officers. Officers fired, he said, “believing that their life and the life of their partners and the general public were in danger.” Charles characterized Belgal’s wound as “superficial” and said ICE planned to remove him from the country as soon as possible.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin defended the officers, saying they were wearing body cameras that were turned on, and that they “were not aware there was a child in the car.” He criticized the city’s sanctuary policies, saying officers are left to make arrests “at large in the community in unpredictable and dangerous environments.”

City officials and witnesses countered that the plainclothes officers — wearing construction-style vests and face masks — could not reasonably be identified as law enforcement. “There was no reasonable way to identify them as ICE agents,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said, calling the shooting “an outrage.”

A City Erupts

The shooting — the first involving ICE agents in New York City since President Trump’s immigration crackdown — drew rapid, furious condemnation. Mamdani said he spent two hours on the phone with President Donald Trump and Mullin seeking Belgal’s release, without success, and described federal agents whisking Belgal away from the hospital in an unmarked vehicle late Thursday night.

“This is an unconscionable and incredibly serious situation,” Mamdani said. “ICE is rotten to its core.” He called for the agency’s abolition.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said she delivered a similar message to Trump and Mullin, urging a halt to ICE operations in the state and the public release of any body camera footage. “We expect federal authorities to provide a full and transparent accounting of the circumstances surrounding this incident,” she said. “New Yorkers deserve to know exactly what happened and why.”

City Councilmember Carmen De La Rosa, a Dominican-American who represents the area, said she was “heartbroken and enraged.” Councilmember Pierina Sanchez said, “They’re terrorizing our communities. They’re reckless. We want them out of here.”

By 9 p.m. Thursday, hundreds of protesters had gathered near West 220th Street and Broadway, marching to the hospital where Belgal had been treated. Clashes with police followed; at least two people were detained and water bottles were thrown, Gothamist reported. Demonstrators chanted, “ICE off our streets now!”

Witnesses described frightening moments. “I threw myself on the floor hoping I didn’t get shot,” resident Orlando Perez told Gothamist. “It was in my direction that they were shooting.” Resident Alfred Silva, 38, called for greater transparency: “Anybody in the street can just put on a vest and pull out a gun and claim to be ICE.”

The Officer Under Scrutiny

A WIRED investigation published early Friday identified the officer who brandished a rifle on scene as Brenden Cuni, an ICE supervisor with the agency’s National Fugitive Operations team. According to WIRED, Cuni has a documented history of alleged excessive force and unlawful arrests, and federal judges have repeatedly found arrests involving him unlawful. One judge called an arrest warrant he signed “fraudulent,” while another said video evidence “largely contradicts” his sworn account; in a third case, the government withdrew his sworn statements as “inaccurate.” Court filings accuse him of using a Taser on a handcuffed man in the Bronx, and activists allege he was among agents seen forcing a pregnant woman to the ground during a Minneapolis operation. Cuni did not respond to WIRED’s requests for comment.

Investigation and the Battle Over Oversight

The investigation was taken over by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a unit of the same department that employs the officers involved — a move that critics said creates a conflict of interest. “They should not be investigating a shooting that their agency was part of,” said Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition, demanding that DHS release footage.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for a “full and independent investigation” and the “full and immediate release of all body camera footage,” the New York Post reported. “ICE is a rogue, lawless paramilitary and surveillance agency,” she said, adding, “Abolish ICE.” She also criticized Target, accusing the corporation of offering its Bronx properties as ICE staging sites — an allegation Target denied. “We have no agreement in place with ICE or any other immigration enforcement agencies,” spokesperson Lauren Frank said.

The dispute echoed a broader pattern: ICE agents have fired their guns during more than a dozen vehicle stops since last year, killing at least four people and wounding others, with video and witnesses frequently calling into question DHS’s version of events. Three days before the shooting, eight elected officials representing the Bronx and Upper Manhattan wrote to a property owner urging that ICE be barred from staging in a nearby parking lot.

What’s Next

Belgal remained in federal custody Friday, and ICE has signaled it intends to remove him from the country. His criminal history — a 2023 robbery arrest that ended in a guilty plea to fourth-degree grand larceny and five years’ probation, plus a pending 2025 drug-sale charge to which he has pleaded not guilty — has been central to the federal government’s defense of the operation, while city officials have emphasized only two prior NYC arrests.

Several questions remain unanswered: whether body camera footage will ever be released, whether the HSI-led investigation can satisfy calls for independence, and how the incident will shape an already volatile national debate over immigration enforcement. New York’s leaders have framed the shooting as a turning point. “New York City will not stand by while ICE agents shoot New Yorkers,” Mamdani said. Federal officials have framed it as a lawful operation against a “criminal illegal alien.” The gap between those two accounts — and the pressure building on both sides — is likely only to widen in the days ahead.