![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/c890507fe99dcd22097076d533a1a13a01-ice-shooting-nyc.rsquare.w400.jpg\")
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\n Protesters gather after ICE agents shot and wounded Oscar Belgal on Marble Hill Ave. near W. 225th St. in New York City on October, 8, 2026.
\n Photo: Barry Williams\/New York Daily News\/Getty Images\n <\/p>\n
It\u2019s been more than a week since Oscar Belgal<\/a> was shot in the neck by an ICE agent in the Manhattan and Bronx adjacent\u2013neighborhood of Marble Hill, and the details of what happened to the 28-year-old Dominican man \u2014 whose five-year-old son was in the backseat of his car when the agents opened fire \u2014 continue to filter out. So far, immigrant advocates still haven\u2019t heard anything that justifies the shooting.<\/p>\n \u201cRegardless of what led them to this individual, there is a proper process to ascertain an individual,\u201d explained Murad Awawdeh, the president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, in an interview. \u201cThey could have gotten a judicial warrant. They didn\u2019t. They could have sent him a notice to come in for a check-in. They didn\u2019t. They could have done several different things instead of opening fire on Oscar and his five-year-old when schools were being let out in the Bronx.\u201d<\/p>\n In a petition<\/a> Belgal\u2019s attorneys filed on Wednesday seeking his release from federal custody, they said that Belgal had picked up his son from school that afternoon and had stopped at a nearby McDonald\u2019s before arriving home. Belgal went back outside to move his car from where it was parked near a fire hydrant when, he says, an armed, masked man suddenly approached his driver\u2019s side window.<\/p>\n \u201cThe men did not identify themselves, show any documents or otherwise communicate with Oscar in any substantive way. Instead, without identifying himself, the first man struck and shattered Oscar\u2019s window and began firing a pistol into Oscar\u2019s car while his son cowered in the back seat,\u201d the court filing reads. \u201cBelieving that his dad had been fatally shot, his son screamed hysterically that the masked men had killed his father.\u201d<\/p>\n The filing claims Belgal was not rendered aid once he exited the vehicle and that the agents \u201cpinned him to the ground, handcuffed him, and left him slumped and semi-conscious.\u201d Belgal\u2019s lawyers write that it was only after their client awoke in the hospital that the agents identified themselves as ICE.<\/p>\n The shooting has left Belgal with numbness in the left side of his face as well as hearing loss in his left ear, they say. Though doctors instructed Belgal to have surgery to remove the bullet from his neck within the week of October 12, he has yet to receive it and reportedly is only being offered ibuprofen for his pain. After being released from the hospital, Belgal was transferred briefly to New Jersey before being sent to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn where he currently remains in a segregated unit. A federal judge has temporarily blocked<\/a> Belgal\u2019s deportation out of the country as well as his transfer outside of the district or the Eastern District of New York or the District of New Jersey.<\/p>\n In a statement<\/a>, Legal Aid Society attorneys Perry McAninch and Elyssa Williams note that MDC is \u201cnotorious for medical neglect\u201d and that \u201cwith a bullet still lodged in his neck and his serious medical needs unmet, every additional day in custody puts him at further risk.\u201d<\/p>\n They allege that federal agents violated Belgal\u2019s right to due process by attempting to arrest him without a warrant. Federal prosecutors have until Monday, October 19 to respond to the court and justify Belgal\u2019s continued detention.<\/p>\n The filing is further challenging the official narrative<\/a> of the incident being put forth by the Trump administration. The Department of Homeland Security has claimed that Belgal, a Dominican national, has gang affiliations and that he was the target of an investigation into the shooting of a Customs and Border Patrol officer in the city last year. Belgal\u2019s legal team said in their filing that ICE has yet to file evidence of those ties and that their client \u201cvehemently denies\u201d any involvement with gangs. According to the NYPD, Belgal has two prior arrests including one in 2013 where he pled guilty to fourth-degree grand larceny and received five years\u2019 probation and a pending case for the criminal sale of a controlled substance for which he was arrested in 2025.<\/p>\n During a press conference<\/a> held Friday, ICE Executive Associate Director Marcos Charles said that the agents on scene used their vehicles to box Belgal in in order to make the arrest and claimed that Belgal refused orders to exit his car and then \u201cweaponized\u201d his vehicle by accelerating it in the direction of other officers. When the officers opened fire, Charles said, they were \u201cusing their training and believing that their life and the lives of their partners and the general public were in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n Charles said Belgal was hit \u201csuperficially\u201d in the neck and claimed ICE officers rendered aid and transported Belgal to a nearby hospital, a fact contradicted by the release of NYPD body-camera footage<\/a> that showed officers arriving on the scene following the shooting and eventually transporting Belgal in their department vehicle. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin<\/a> later insisted that the ICE agents didn\u2019t know there was a child in the car.<\/p>\n There\u2019s still no available video footage of the shooting itself. Surveillance footage<\/a> released by the NYPD appears to show Belgal\u2019s car accelerating forward away from officers after his window was smashed, but the moment of the shooting was not captured on camera. On Sunday, Mullin indicated<\/a> that there is ICE bodycam footage from the incident that would likely be released, but suggested the timing hinged on the ongoing investigation. The Bronx district attorney Darcel Clark said<\/a> her office is also investigating the shooting, and Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> has said<\/a> that she has his full confidence.<\/p>\n The New York Immigration Coalition\u2019s Awawdeh doesn\u2019t buy DHS\u2019s explanations. \u201cThey chose violence and they chose these theatrics because this is what ICE does now. It\u2019s sow as much harm as they can in this moment and continue to push people further into the shadows, create more panic, more fear, and more chaos in our communities,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s never been about safety and security; it\u2019s always been about cruelty because that\u2019s their point here.\u201d<\/p>\n Sign Up for the Intelligencer\u00a0Newsletter<\/p>\n Daily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n