{"id":369014,"date":"2026-10-09T16:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T16:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/369014\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T16:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T16:08:10","slug":"ice-officers-shot-a-man-in-new-york-because-they-believed-they-were-in-danger-official-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/369014\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE officers shot a man in New York because they believed they were in danger, official says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"FBI agents perform an investigation at the scene of a shooting on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo\/Seth Wenig) <\/p>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Federal immigration officers opened fire on a Dominican man in New York because he drove his car into officers\u2019 vehicles and they believed their lives were in danger, a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said Friday.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old man, whom New York City police identified as Oscar Belgal, was shot \u201csuperficially\u201d in the neck as ICE officers attempted to arrest him, Marcos Charles said.<\/p>\n

Officers used their vehicles to block the man as he attempted to drive away, but he accelerated toward them, Charles said during a news conference with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin in Washington. The Department of Homeland Security said the news conference was about the \u201cdangerous consequences of sanctuary city policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur officers, using their training and believing that their life and the life of the partners and the general public were in danger, used their training and fired weapons,\u201d Charles said.<\/p>\n

Belgal had a 5-year-old boy in the car with him when the shooting happened, officials said.<\/p>\n

Mullin said ICE agents didn\u2019t know the child was in the car, but that Belgal \u201cwas aware\u201d and chose to knowingly put the boy at risk by trying to evade officers.<\/p>\n

\"\"Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, speaks during a news conference at ICE Headquarters, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Jacquelyn Martin) It\u2019s not the first time ICE tried to detain Belgal, Charles says<\/p>\n

Charles said Belgal was associated with a robbery crew that used mopeds and weapons, and was convicted on larceny charges and sentenced to five years of probation last year.<\/p>\n

Belgal evaded officers in September when ICE tried to arrest him for deportation, Charles said.<\/p>\n

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, both Democrats, said late Thursday that they had pressed Mullin and Republican President Donald Trump to release Belgal, to no avail. They also urged the administration to immediately release body camera footage of the shooting and to halt immigration enforcement operations in the city.<\/p>\n

Mullin said Belgal was being held in a facility outside New York City but declined to say where.<\/p>\n

He confirmed ICE officers were wearing body cameras that were activated, but didn\u2019t say when any footage would be released.<\/p>\n

New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Belgal was pulling into a parking space when a federal officer in plainclothes approached with gun drawn, followed by another federal officer who also wasn\u2019t in uniform. Belgal started to pull the car forward, and at least one of the officers fired seven rounds, hitting the man below his left ear.<\/p>\n

Protesters and local officials had decried the shooting as an example of the dangers of the Trump administration\u2019s immigration crackdown.<\/p>\n

\"\"New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani talks during a news conference near the scene of a shooting on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo\/Seth Wenig) <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no justification for what we have seen today,\u201d Mamdani said late Thursday at the scene of the shooting.<\/p>\n

Federal officers who surrounded the vehicle wore construction vests and masks, making it difficult to identify them as immigration officers, he said.<\/p>\n

Mullins slams NYC\u2019s immigration policies<\/p>\n

Much of Mullin\u2019s remarks Friday were reserved for excoriating Mamdani and his immigration policy. The Democrat, who took office in January, has restricted local cooperation with immigration enforcement operations and repeatedly called for the abolition of ICE.<\/p>\n

\u201cSanctuary politicians, they create an environment for criminal activity to thrive, not for the American citizens to be safe,\u201d Mullins said.<\/p>\n

ICE has asked local officials in New York to hold onto more than 14,000 people for federal officers to collect and place in immigration detention, he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Protestors scuffle with police near at the scene of a shooting on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo\/Seth Wenig) <\/p>\n

\u201cSilence. Absolute silence is what we have gotten back,\u201d the secretary said. \u201cWhy would they release these individuals back onto the streets?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re enforcing our nation\u2019s laws. We\u2019re not picking and choosing,\u201d Mullin continued. \u201cWhy is that controversial? We should all want law and order on our streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mullin also criticized the attention surrounding the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a thug. The absolute worst of the worst,\u201d he complained. \u201cWe\u2019re giving so much attention to this thug.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Marcelo reported from New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FBI agents perform an investigation at the scene of a shooting on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":["post-369014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}