{"id":373394,"date":"2026-10-14T23:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T23:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/373394\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T23:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T23:40:15","slug":"ice-never-identified-themselves-during-nyc-shooting-of-oscar-belgal-who-still-has-bullet-in-neck-lawyers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/373394\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE never identified themselves during NYC shooting of Oscar Belgal, who still has bullet in neck: lawyers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawyers for Oscar Belgal, the undocumented Dominican immigrant shot by ICE agents in New York City last week,<\/a> are asking for his immediate release, claiming that agents never identified themselves and, six days later, their client still hasn\u2019t been allowed to undergo surgery despite having a bullet lodged in his neck.<\/p>\n

The Legal Aid Society, which now represents the 28-year-old father, filed a habeas corpus petition<\/a> in Brooklyn Federal Court Wednesday, calling Belgal\u2019s arrest illegal and demanding his \u201cimmediate release on reasonable conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything less fails to adequately address Oscar\u2019s imminent risk of complete and irreversible harm,\u201d reads the motion, filed by Legal Aid immigration lawyer Perry McAninch, noting, \u201cHe has experienced a loss of sensation in half of his face, as well as hearing loss in his left ear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Belgal\u2019s lawyers said he had picked his boy up from school and taken him to McDonald\u2019s before ICE agents swarmed his car.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter ICE shot him, Oscar exited his vehicle and pleaded for medical assistance, fearing that he was dying,\u201d the Legal Aid motion reads. \u201cAnd believing the same, his son began yelling that the masked individuals had killed his dad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Belgal claims in court papers that ICE agents never identified themselves as they approached the car with guns drawn.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t until later, when Oscar woke up in the hospital with one of their bullets lodged in his neck, that the individuals would declare themselves as ICE officers,\u201d his attorneys said in the court filing.<\/p>\n

\"Law<\/p>\n

Barry Williams \/ New York Daily News<\/p>\n

Law enforcement officers investigate after ICE agents shot and wounded a man on Marble Hill Ave. near W. 225th St. in the Bronx on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (Barry Williams \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Belgal, who was initially detained in New Jersey after his shooting, was moved to the notorious MDC Brooklyn federal jail<\/a> on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Belgal\u2019s detention was unlawful from its inception. ICE officers shot him in the neck in front of his five-year-old son, failed to provide him with immediate medical assistance, and now continue to hold him in a facility notorious for medical neglect,\u201d McAninch and fellow Legal Aid attorney Elyssa Williams said in a joint statement Wednesday. \u201cWith a bullet still lodged in his neck and his serious medical needs unmet, every additional day in custody puts him at further risk. The Court must intervene and order his immediate release.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Daily News has covered several instances of medical mistreatment at the jail, including two cases where staff botched inmates\u2019 cancer treatment.<\/a> In one case, court documents detail how jail staff ignored an inmate\u2019s CT scan result for months, allowing a tumor in his lung to triple in size. He died last November.<\/a><\/p>\n

Belgal\u2019s case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Hector Gonzalez, a Biden appointee who has ruled against ICE in the past.<\/p>\n

\"Protestors<\/p>\n

Barry Williams \/ New York Daily News<\/p>\n

Protestors gather after ICE agents shot and wounded a man on Marble Hill Ave. near W. 225th St. on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026 in the Bronx. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Judge Gonzalez gave the Department of Homeland Security until Monday at 10 a.m. to file paperwork explaining why Belgal shouldn\u2019t be released. He also ordered that Belgal remain in New York until DHS files their paperwork.<\/p>\n

An earlier habeas corpus petition brought by Belgal\u2019s attorneys in Manhattan Federal Court following the shooting is expected to be dismissed after his then lawyers acknowledged Tuesday that he wasn\u2019t in the Southern District of New York when they filed it.<\/p>\n

An ICE agent fired seven bullets into a silver Honda Civic driven by Belgal, on Marble Hill Ave. near W. 225th St. Thursday afternoon, hitting him in the neck. His 5-year-old son was in the back seat.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"FederalFederal agents take Oscar Belgal into custody after shooting and wounding him on Marble Hill Ave. near W. 225th St. in the Bronx on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. A child (circled) is held by an officer at the scene. (Photo by Stephanie Ferrer)<\/p>\n

While video of the actual shooting has not been released, agents were in plainclothes, some disguised as construction workers, when they ran up to Belgal\u2019s car, their weapons raised toward him.<\/p>\n

Attorneys say ICE didn\u2019t have a warrant for Belgal\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n

\u201cRespondents have failed to meet the most elemental requirements for their arrest and detention authority, not even having charged Oscar as a removable immigrant before arresting him,\u201d McAnnich wrote.<\/p>\n

\"Law<\/p>\n

Barry Williams \/ New York Daily News<\/p>\n

Law enforcement officers investigate after ICE agents shot and wounded a man on Marble Hill Ave. near W. 225th St. in the Bronx on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (Barry Williams \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Belgal\u2019s contend that the ICE agents never identified themselves, even after shooting him, and stood by doing nothing as he bled on the ground. Responding NYPD officers took him to New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital.<\/p>\n

The court filing doesn\u2019t identify who shot Belgal, though it names Supervising Deportation Officer Brenden Cuni as one of the agents present. He\u2019s not believed to be the shooter.<\/p>\n

Cuni has been named in several cases<\/a> alleging violence against immigrants during arrests, and he\u2019s been called to task by name by at least two Brooklyn Federal Court judges in cases where agents made arrests<\/a> before writing up arrest warrants.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Protestors<\/p>\n

Barry Williams \/ New York Daily News<\/p>\n

Protestors march to New York- Presbyterian Allen Hospital after ICE agents shot and wounded a man on Marble Hill Ave. near W. 225th St. on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026 in the Bronx. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin has repeatedly defended the agents,<\/a> painting Belgal as a \u201cdangerous\u201d criminal with ties to the Trinitarios \u2014 though the government hasn\u2019t described what those ties might be \u2014and saying that he \u201cweaponized his vehicle\u201d and accelerated at ICE officers as he tried to escape.<\/p>\n

Belgal may have direct or indirect knowledge of a shooting of a Customs and Border Protection officer in Manhattan last year, Mullin said.<\/p>\n

When asked to comment on Legal Aid\u2019s petition to have Belgal released, DHS only sent quotes that Mullin said Friday, calling the detainee one of the \u201cworst of the worst.\u201d The federal Bureau of Prisons didn\u2019t respond to questions about Belgal\u2019s medical care.<\/p>\n

On May 22, Judge Gonzalez ruled against ICE in the case of Ecuadorian immigrant Oscar Alexander Curimilma Quille, who was surrounded and arrested without a warrant during a vehicle stop outside his Patchogue home on April 30. The agents were targeting another person when they surveilled the vehicle.<\/p>\n

In that case, ICE agents failed to include accurate information in those initial documents to show that Quille had the opportunity to explain he wasn\u2019t dangerous or a flight risk, and gave \u201cinconsistent\u201d evidence about whether he tried to run from them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the government did not accurately record the truth, Petitioner\u2019s detention was a foregone conclusion. If the government did not even consider the truth and instead recorded what it thought would justify detention, that is far worse. Under either scenario, Petitioner was not afforded due process,\u201d the judge wrote at the time.<\/p>\n

With Molly Crane-Newman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lawyers for Oscar Belgal, the undocumented Dominican immigrant shot by ICE agents in New York City last week,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,56,63,261,65,64,265],"class_list":["post-373394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-sub-county-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373394","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=373394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}