More than 80 activists blocked the northbound entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge on Wednesday afternoon, bringing traffic to a standstill for about an hour on Oct. 28.

The demonstrators — representing Extinction Rebellion New York City, Climate Defiance, Planet Over Profit and Port of Elizabeth Movement — carried two yellow banners, one reading “Stop Shooting Us” and the other “Stop Shooting Our Neighbors.”

The protest led to the arrest of 14 protesters who refused to clear the roadway.

The NYPD arrested 14 protestors for blocking traffic to the Brooklyn Bridge. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann The NYPD arrested 14 protestors for blocking traffic to the Brooklyn Bridge. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann The NYPD arrested 14 protestors for blocking traffic to the Brooklyn Bridge. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann

The protesters demanded that the NYPD stop cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and called for the release of Oscar Belgal from federal custody. Belgal, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, was shot by an ICE agent in Manhattan’s Marble Hill neighborhood on Oct. 8 while sitting in his car with his son in the back seat.

“We will not stand by while our neighbors and children, our mothers and brothers, are shot in the streets, terrorized as they go to school, feed our country, and care for our sick,” Climate Defiance organizer Nate Smith said. “We will not pretend we aren’t at the epicenter of a colonial power that harvests other countries’ resources and burns those resources, collapsing the climate, ruining harvests, raising seas and oceans, drying up rivers, and displacing some 1.2 billion people by 2050, according to conservative UN estimates.”

The 28-year-old father of two is being held in solitary confinement at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, where protesters say his condition is deteriorating because the bullet is allegedly still lodged in his neck.

“We’re using our First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and protest to tell our elected officials that this is not something that we should put up,” one protester told Brooklyn Paper.

Protestors block traffic to the Brooklyn Bridge over the ICE shooting of Oscar Belgal. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann A driver is stuck as protestors block traffic to the Brooklyn Bridge over the ICE shooting of Oscar Belgal. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann

Last Friday, U.S. District Judge Hector Gonzalez denied Belgal’s request for release and ordered him to remain in ICE custody at the Sunset Park facility. The center is New York City’s only long-term ICE detention center and currently houses 200 detained immigrants under what civil rights advocates describe as inhumane conditions.

Gonzalez also argued that Belgal had received adequate medical treatment, saying he was assessed and treated at the detention center with medication, wound care and concussion monitoring. Belgal also received CT scans at Brooklyn Hospital, leading medical providers to conclude that he did not need acute surgical or medical care at that time or specialized medical care while in custody.

“When considered in conjunction, Petitioner’s submissions characterize his medical care as inadequate and dangerous, but the government’s submissions, including the Medical Records, show that he has received necessary and appropriate care and that his medical condition is stable. Accordingly, Petitioner has failed to demonstrate that his immediate release is necessary pending adjudication of his Petition,” Gonzalez wrote.

Protestors block traffic to the Brooklyn Bridge over the ICE shooting of Oscar Belgal. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann Protestors block traffic to the Brooklyn Bridge over the ICE shooting of Oscar Belgal. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann

Gonzalez’s ruling drew a prompt response from the Legal Aid Society, which vowed to continue fighting for Belgal’s release.

“This ruling leaves Mr. Belgal in detention despite the concerns surrounding his deteriorating medical condition and raises serious questions about whether his health and basic human dignity are being given the weight they deserve,” the statement reads, noting that more than 50 people have died in ICE custody since 2025, “raising serious questions about the agency’s treatment of medically vulnerable individuals.”

One protester, Nicole, called on Mayor Zohran Mamdani to fire NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

“It’s up to the mayor to make sure that the NYPD does not work with ICE officials,” Nicole told Brooklyn Paper. And again and again, we see NYPD assisting ICE, letting the cars go through, letting the officers go through, blocking protesters that are trying to block the cars or stop the arrests. I know Mamdani is anti-ICE, [but] he needs to step it up and have stronger consequences for the NYPD if they’re assisting with ICE and the Feds.”

NYPD officers are preparing to arrest protestors blocking traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann The NYPD arrested 14 protestors for blocking traffic to the Brooklyn Bridge. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann

Brooklynite Rarri joined the protest after seeing a livestream on Instagram. He told Brooklyn Paper that, like the demonstrators, he was frustrated with the current political climate.

“I could be frustrated on my couch at home on Instagram, or I could be frustrated outside with the people,” Rarri said.

He added that he lived near the ICE memorial in Brooklyn’s Little Haiti, dedicated to Pierre Damas Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian college student who died by suicide following the termination of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians.

Brooklynite Rarri joined the protest after seeing live video on Instagram. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann

“We all deserve to be treated as people, to be treated equally, and I don’t understand how nobody else is as frustrated or sees what’s going on,” Rarri said. “I don’t know much, but it don’t take much. You don’t need to be a highly educated person to see that right is right and wrong is wrong.”