On the day of Oct. 8 at 4 p.m., Oscar Belgal was shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Upper Manhattan.

At the time of the shooting, schools were just letting out. Belgal had picked up his 5-year-old child and was sitting in his parked car. It was then that a group of ICE agents, wearing plain clothes and seemingly disguised as construction workers in hi-vis safety vests, approached Belgal’s vehicle with guns drawn. 

Seeing masked individuals with guns who looked like regular people, Belgal panicked, put his car into drive, and began to leave the parking spot. It was at this time that ICE agent Brendan Cuni fired seven rounds at the vehicle’s windshield. A bullet struck Belgal in the neck.

ICE agent disguised as a construction worker shoots man in Manhattan

This shooting occurred at the intersection of Marble Hill Ave and West 225th Street, less than 300 feet from Atmosphere Academy Public Charter Schools and down the road from a daycare.

Due to these factors, the street where ICE shot this man was full of families with their children. 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and senior ICE official Marcos Charles released a statement saying that ICE agents shot out of self-defense after Belghal “weaponized his vehicle.”

This is the same reasoning DHS gave for the shootings of Renée Good, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, and Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero. 

Agents provided first aid to Belgal before taking him to New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, where anti-ICE protests were held throughout the night before agents “put him into an unmarked car and whisked him away,” as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani put it in a conference he held. 

During this late-night conference, Mamdani told protesters that he had called President Trump and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, and he attempted to negotiate the release of Belgal, but it was to no avail.

While there are no more details regarding the shooting at this moment, protests have been springing up throughout New York City and have been going on throughout the night, with protesters directly and physically clashing with ICE and New York’s Police Department.