MARBLE HILL, Manhattan (WABC) — There are growing calls for transparency Friday morning after an ICE agent shot a man in Manhattan, with his 5-year-old son in the backseat of his car.
The Department of Homeland Security said the man was an “illegal immigrant” with a long history of run-ins with police.
Authorities said ICE agents were trying to detain 28-year-old Oscar Belgal at about 4 p.m. Thursday when agents opened fire, striking him in the neck in the Marble Hill neighborhood.
Officials with the Department of Homeland Security said Belgal is from the Dominican Republic and has prior arrests.
Belgal was inside a vehicle at the time of the shooting. Officials said his young son was seated in the back seat.
Residents described chaotic scenes following the shooting, saying a nearby school had just dismissed students and that the boy appeared frozen in shock.
A photo of Belgal obtained by ABC News was released following the incident.
At the time of the shooting, ICE agents were attempting to detain a person being investigated for ties to migrants involved in the shooting of an off-duty customs officer in Fort Washington Park in July 2025.
Two Dominican nationals involved in the case were sentenced in federal court earlier this week, while state charges are still pending.
The Department of Homeland Security released a statement defending the operation.
“ICE officers were conducting a targeted enforcement operation… to arrest a criminal illegal alien from the Dominican Republic with a prior criminal conviction for grand larceny, and multiple prior arrests for assault, robbery, possession of drugs, and weapons possession. He has associations to the Trinitarios gang, the same gang that brutally killed a CBP officer last year.”
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said police cameras captured a federal enforcement officer and a plainclothes officer approaching the driver’s side window of the vehicle.
Tisch said the vehicle then began moving forward and out of the camera’s view. Based on evidence collected by investigators, authorities determined that at least one ICE agent fired seven rounds.
City officials said the 5-year-old boy was not injured.
The shooting prompted protests Wednesday night. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he spoke by phone with President Donald Trump and DHS Secretary Mullin in an effort to secure Belgal’s release, but said those negotiations were unsuccessful.
“We will not normalize ICE’s viciousness; we will not accept its cruelty… ICE undermines public safety. it make sus less safe. NYC will not stand by while ICE agents shoot New Yorkers… this is an agency that must be abolished,” Mamdani said.
Mayor Mamdani and Commissioner Jessica Tisch hold update on ICE shooting.
Belgal was hospitalized and listed in stable condition, according to officials.
Witnesses told reporters that ICE agents took the 5-year-old boy from the scene.
Witnesses describe chaotic scene
Witnesses described panic and chaos after gunfire erupted and ICE agents flooded the area.
“Like pow pow pow pow pow,” witness Jeffrey said.
“It was really quick. It was boom boom boom. It was really quick,” witness Marcelo Desa said.
Witnesses said the streets were crowded at the time, with children leaving school and commuters coming through the area.
“The streets were full of children coming out of school. People coming out of the bus. We were all turning the corner when shots rang out. We heard seven, eight shots really loud,” one witness said.
Video from the scene captured the sound of sirens and showed a man lying in the street after being pulled from a vehicle. Witnesses described seeing what they believed was a semi-automatic assault rifle.
“Got a AR bro look at this. That’s ICE. This is ICE bro,” a bystander said in video recorded at the scene.
“It was a big assault rifle. It was pow pow pow pow,” another witness said.
One witness said, “He shot into the back of a vehicle without knowing that there was a 5-year-old child inside the car.”
Witnesses said the child was frozen in terror.
Witnesses said the heavy law-enforcement presence remained in the area well after the shooting. About 90 minutes after the shooting, dozens of ICE agents were seen leaving the scene.
“There was hundreds of kids out here. We have a huge school right here that has thousands of kids inside,” one witness said.
ICE recently set a daily target of 3,000 arrests per day nationally, up from 2,000, sources told ABC News, a report which the Department of Homeland Security denied.
Shooting sparks protests, condemnation from lawmakers, immigration activists
Hundreds of protesters gathered Thursday evening at a hospital in Inwood where the man who was shot is being treated for his injuries.
In addition to Mamdani, the shooting also sparked swift reaction from local politicians like Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Gov. Hochul is calling for “full transparency” from federal authorities, and also said she spoke with the president and DHS Secretary Mullin, urging them to “halt ICE enforcement operations in New York,” and release body camera footage of the shooting to the public.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who attended a press conference hosted by the New York Immigration Coalition, released a statement saying he hears the fear anger of the Marble Hill community, and also “hear their resolve, their commitment to stand by our immigrant neighbors under attack.”
He added, “They belong in our city – ICE does not.”
The shooting has also prompted responses from city immigration activists.
“ICE’s violent tactics are a clear danger to all New Yorkers, as today’s shooting in a residential neighborhood demonstrates. This incident is another reminder of the unchecked, rampant violence ICE has been spreading throughout our communities,” said Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition.
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