The NYPD said at least one ICE agent fired seven shots at 28-year-old Oscar Bergal, striking him in the neck below the ear, during an incident in Marble Hill Thursday afternoon. A 5-year-old boy, believed to be Bergal’s son, was inside the vehicle at the time but was unharmed and is now in the care of a family member, according to officials. ICE has claimed that Bergal refused to comply with an order to exit his vehicle, also accusing him of attempting to “weaponize” his vehicle against agents. Critics have strongly refuted those allegations.
Friday’s rally, organized by Hands Off NYC, saw representatives from the New York Immigration Coalition, Make the Road New York, the New York Civil Liberties Union, the New York Working Families Party and several other immigrant advocacy groups gather in front of ICE’s New York City headquarters to demand that the agency be removed from New York City.
Murad Awawdeh, CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, accused ICE of “waging a war” against New Yorkers.
“Yesterday, a New Yorker was shot in the head in front of his five-year-old child,” Awawdeh said at Friday’s rally. “I hope that child gets the support that they need, and that the family can be reunited one day. May the agonizing screams of that five-year-old keep the officers who shot those rounds up every single night.”
Murad Awawdeh, CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, accused ICE of “waging a war” against New Yorkers. Photo by Dean Moses
Protesters, who were joined by elected officials including Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, City Comptroller Mark Levine and Queens Assembly Member Catalina Cruz, also called for an independent investigation into the shooting by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The group later marched from Foley Square to 201 Varick St., which houses United States Customs and Immigration Services offices as well as immigration courts, calling on ICE to release bodycam footage from Thursday’s shooting.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin confirmed earlier on Friday that federal agents were wearing bodycams during the incident and said information would be released as the investigation progressed. However, he did not explicitly confirm that bodycam footage would be released.
Further demands at Friday’s protest included that Bergal be released immediately from ICE custody, that the shooter be charged and prosecuted and that Target and other businesses refuse to allow ICE to use their parking lots as staging posts for operations, with protesters alleging that ICE have used the parking lot at Marble Hill Target to stage operations in the Bronx.
In a statement to amNewYork earlier on Friday, a Target spokesperson said, “Target has no cooperative agreements with ICE or any other immigration enforcement agency.”
Echoing Mamdani’s call demanding ‘ICE out of NYC’
The group later marched from Foley Square to 201 Varick St., which houses United States Customs and Immigration Services offices as well as immigration courts, calling on ICE to release bodycam footage from Thursday’s shooting.Photo by Dean Moses
Awawdeh and other speakers also called for the removal of ICE from New York and the abolition of the federal agency.
Those comments echo calls by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who renewed calls to abolish the agency on Thursday night.
“Tonight, a five-year-old child sits traumatized and terrified. Tonight, millions of our neighbors are wondering whether they will be safe on our streets, in our schools, at their work sites,” Mamdani said.
“We will not normalize ICE’s viciousness. We will not accept its cruelty,” Mamdani said. “ICE undermines public safety. It makes us less safe… This is an agency that must be abolished.”
Other speakers on Friday called for “clarity” in how the NYPD is acting during ICE operations.
Natalia Aristizabal, co-executive director of Make the Road NY, said the organization is seeking to ensure that the NYPD is “protecting our community members and not ICE agents.”
Meanwhile, Devashish Basnet, immigration strategist with the New York Civil Liberties Union, demanded an independent investigation into the NYPD’s role in ICE operations, accusing the police of targeting protesters in Marble Hill on Thursday night.
“We can’t call ourselves a sanctuary city when the NYPD clears a path for ICE and goes after protesters like we saw last night,” Basnet said.
Basnet also demanded that ICE be removed from New York and abolished, calling for an independent investigation into the shooting.
Federal claims about Marble Hill shooting
Further demands at Friday’s protest included that Bergal be released immediately from ICE custody, that the shooter be charged and prosecuted and that Target and other businesses refuse to allow ICE to use their parking lots as staging posts for operations, with protesters alleging that ICE have used the parking lot at Marble Hill Target to stage operations in the Bronx. Photo by Dean Moses 
Chelsea Manning was among those marching on Friday.Photo by Dean Moses 
Further demands at Friday’s protest included that Bergal be released immediately from ICE custody, that the shooter be charged and prosecuted and that Target and other businesses refuse to allow ICE to use their parking lots as staging posts for operations, with protesters alleging that ICE have used the parking lot at Marble Hill Target to stage operations in the Bronx. Photo by Dean Moses
ICE has not responded to a request for comment. However, in a post on social media on Friday afternoon, the Department of Homeland Security accused immigration advocates of spreading “numerous lies” about the shooting.
Mullin, meanwhile, claimed earlier on Friday that Bergal ignored orders to exit his vehicle, struck two ICE vehicles and then accelerated toward officers before an agent opened fire. Mullin said agents “did not know” that Bergal’s five-year-old child was in the vehicle at the time and instead blamed Bergal for putting the child in danger by ignoring orders to exit the vehicle.
DHS official Marcos Charles, meanwhile, claimed that ICE agents had attempted to box Bergal in as part of an operation to arrest him. Charles further claimed that agents gave Bergal lawful orders to exit the vehicle and alleged that Bergal had “weaponized his vehicle.”
But DHS claims go beyond what the NYPD has been able to establish from surveillance cameras.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said footage appeared to show a plainclothes federal officer with his gun drawn approaching Bergal’s side window as he attempted to back into a parking space. A second officer appeared to move toward the driver’s side headlight.
The vehicle began moving forward and went out of camera view, Tisch said. The cameras did not capture what happened next or the shooting itself.
However, investigators determined that at least one ICE agent fired seven rounds into Bergal’s vehicle, striking him in the neck just below the ear.
Mamdani, meanwhile, criticized ICE over the incident during a press conference Thursday night, questioning how Bergal could have reasonably identified masked, plainclothes federal agents.
He said ICE agents wore construction-style vests during the operation and used masks to conceal their faces, making it almost impossible for Bergal to identify them as law enforcement.
Mamdani further criticized ICE agents for firing rounds into a car with a five-year-old child.
“There is no explanation for federal officers firing this many rounds into a car that has a five-year-old in the car,” Mamdani said Thursday night.
Gov. Kathy Hochul also said Thursday night that she had spoken with Trump and Mullin, urging them to halt ICE enforcement operations in New York. She called for any body camera footage of the shooting to be released publicly.
“I expressed outrage on behalf of New Yorkers and urged them to halt ICE enforcement operations in New York,” Hochul said. “I also asked that any body camera footage of the shooting be released to the public so we can establish the facts and get to the truth.”
The DHS claimed Bergal was the target of a Homeland Security Investigations probe and alleged that he had gang ties and direct or indirect knowledge related to a previous shooting of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer.
Those allegations have not been independently verified.
Tisch said he had two prior arrests in NYC, including a 2023 robbery arrest that resulted in a guilty plea to fourth-degree grand larceny and five years’ probation. A 2025 criminal sale of a controlled substance case remains pending, she said.
In a statement released Thursday night, DHS blamed New York City’s santuary city policies for the incident, stating the Bergal was released days after his 2023 arrest. The statement did not explain how those policies affected his release.
DHS also claimed that Bergal had links to Trinitarios gang. The claim has not been independently verified.
Bergal has been removed from NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital and taken to an undisclosed federal detention facility outside New York following unsuccessful attempts from Mamdani to secure his release.
“For the past two hours, I have been on the phone with President Trump and Secretary Mullin, negotiating the release of the man ICE agents shot,” Mamdani said. “Those negotiations were unsuccessful. Just moments ago, ICE put the man in an unmarked vehicle and whisked him away.”