The illegal migrant shot by federal ICE agents in a chaotic Bronx showdown terrorized his former neighbors with a machete—and a terrified resident said Saturday he’s relieved the violent gangbanger has finally been taken off the streets.
Dominican Republic-native Oscar Belgal, 28, who authorities said has ties to the bloodthirsty Trinitarios street gang, wreaked havoc at the Washington Heights apartment building where he lived until about a year ago, according to a one-time neighbor.
“He’s a menace to society,” the shaken resident said of Belgal — whom Mayor Mamdani outrageously called a “New Yorker” whose release he tried to negotiate as he railed against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I spoke to him once and told him, ‘Look, you need to be more submissive because I see you acting too reckless’ … He thought he was a tough guy,” the resident told The Post.
Oscar Belgal had a dramatic showdown with ICE agents Thursday. DHS
The former neighbor, a man from the Dominican Republic who withheld his name, recalled one of Belgal’s most unhinged outbursts while living there — in which he pulled a machete on another resident’s nephew.
He claimed Belgal got into a fight with the man outside the building last year, prompting him to whip out the deadly weapon.
The neighbor also claimed Belgal, who he described as arrogant and smug, previously dodged ICE by running down one of the building’s two fire escapes.
Belgal was shot in the neck. via REUTERS
“They were looking for him. It seems he had a pending case; Immigration goes after people who have committed crimes,” he said. “Immigration is just doing its job. They go after those who have committed crimes.”
Here’s the latest on the Bronx ICE shooting:
Belgal’s rap sheet includes a 2023 armed robbery conviction and a 2025 arrest for allegedly selling lethal drugs like fentanyl, cocaine and heroin. He reportedly told officials he was not in a gang, and has pleaded not guilty in that case, which remains open.
His most recent run-in with the law was Thursday when two plainclothes ICE agents, with guns drawn, approached the front left side of the gray Honda CR-V he was driving as he peeled out of a parking spot on 225th Street in The Bronx.
One punched and smashed the glass of the driver’s side window. Marcos Charles, the head of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division, said Belgal “accelerated” at the agents, “smashing” into two of them, which was not captured on the CCTV footage obtained by The Post Friday.
He was pulling out of a parking spot when he was approached by agents. New York City Police Department
Protests erupted Saturday in support of Belgal. Michael Nigro for NY Post
Agents caught up with Belgal about half a block away on Marble Hill Ave outside the C&G Gourmet Deli before bullets rang and he was shot in the neck, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
His 5-year-old son, who was in the backseat of the vehicle, was unharmed. Belgal is expected to recover.
On Saturday, protests erupted in Midtown in support of the alleged gangbanger, with anti-ICE rioters holding signs demanding “justice for Oscar Belgal” and to “abolish ICE.” Other posters called for Tisch to be fired.
“He’s putting his son at risk. He’s got legal trouble, yet he drives around with his son in the car?” Belgal’s outraged former neighbor asked. “No, I don’t think that’s right. If he owes a debt to society, he should pay it…He was a danger to society.”
Another resident was surprised to hear that her former neighbor was wanted by the feds.
“It might be true, I suppose—I’m an older person and I’m not out here all the time—but I never heard anything like that about him,” she said.
Melvin, a neighborhood barber who cuts hair about an avenue away from Belgal’s former apartment, was glad that Belgal had been taken into custody.
“It’s a relief that he was apprehended,” he said. “The thing is, when someone is a criminal, they go out onto the streets to cause harm. They don’t care about anyone’s life; they only care about what they can gain by hurting others.
“He harmed his own family; he harmed his son, who was in the car with him. He was the one who got shot, but what if the child had been killed?”
After being taken into custody, Belgal was transported to New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital in stable condition. He was discharged at 9:58 p.m. and taken by ICE to Delaney Hall in Newark, NJ at 10:43 p.m. He was transported to Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn on Friday.
Belgal’s attorney did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.