NEW YORK, Oct 9 – A federal immigration officer shot a 28-year-old Dominican man in the neck during an arrest operation in Manhattan on Thursday afternoon, leaving him hospitalized and triggering angry protests against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies. The man, identified by New York City police as Oscar Belgal, was driving with a 5-year-old boy when the shooting occurred, according to officials.
Belgal survived the shooting and received medical treatment. The child was not injured and was later placed in the care of a relative, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. The incident has raised questions about the circumstances surrounding the use of force, the identification of federal officers conducting immigration arrests, and the potential risks to civilians during enforcement operations.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said federal officers were attempting to arrest Belgal as part of what it described as a targeted enforcement operation. However, the department provided few details about the moments leading up to the gunfire, leaving local officials and witnesses to describe what they saw and heard.
The shooting occurred amid an intensifying national debate over President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, with critics arguing that aggressive enforcement tactics can endanger communities and increase tensions between federal authorities and local governments.
Police Commissioner Details Events Leading to Gunfire
The shooting took place at around 4 p.m. Thursday in Marble Hill, a small Manhattan neighborhood geographically connected to the Bronx. According to Tisch, Belgal was pulling into a parking space when a federal officer dressed in plain clothes approached his vehicle with a gun drawn. A second federal officer, also not wearing a uniform, followed.
Belgal then began moving the car forward. At least one of the officers fired seven rounds, striking him below his left ear, Tisch said during a news conference near the scene later that evening.
The police commissioner emphasized that New York City police officers had not participated in the federal operation. NYPD officers heard the gunshots, responded to the area and became involved in the aftermath.
Tisch said an NYPD security camera captured some of the events preceding the shooting, although the camera did not record the actual gunfire. The available account from city officials therefore provided details about the officers’ approach and the shots fired, but did not fully establish every circumstance that led to the use of a weapon.
The Department of Homeland Security offered a more limited description. In its statement, the agency said an ICE officer discharged a weapon during the incident and confirmed that the man had been injured. It did not provide a detailed explanation of what prompted the officer to fire.
DHS said the intended arrest target was a person it described as a “criminal illegal alien,” citing a grand larceny conviction and a history of other arrests. According to Tisch, Belgal had been arrested on a robbery charge in 2023, subsequently pleaded guilty to grand larceny and received probation.
He was later arrested in a separate drug-sale case that remains unresolved. Electronic court records show that Belgal has pleaded not guilty to the drug charge. The outstanding case does not establish that he committed the alleged offense.
The mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, condemned the shooting and challenged the federal government’s handling of the incident. Mamdani described the shooting as an outrage and said there was no justification for what had happened.
He also raised concerns about how the federal officers presented themselves during the operation. According to the mayor, the officers wore construction-style safety vests and masks, making it difficult for members of the public to recognize them as immigration agents.
Mamdani said he spent approximately two hours on Thursday evening speaking with Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, urging the administration to release the injured man and halt immigration enforcement operations in the city. He said his appeals were unsuccessful and that federal authorities eventually removed Belgal from the hospital late Thursday night and took him away.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat, said she had delivered a similar message to Trump and Mullin during a telephone conversation. Her response reflected growing concern among state and city officials over federal immigration operations conducted in densely populated urban neighborhoods.
The precise legal circumstances surrounding Belgal’s removal from the hospital and the subsequent federal proceedings were not fully detailed in the officials’ public statements.
Protests Erupt as Officials Challenge Federal Immigration Tactics
The shooting quickly drew demonstrators, elected officials and residents to Marble Hill, where anger over the incident intensified during a series of public statements and protests Thursday night.
Carmen De La Rosa, a Democratic New York City Council member who emigrated from the Dominican Republic and represents areas that include Marble Hill, expressed grief and anger over the shooting. Other local politicians also denounced ICE and the Trump administration’s immigration policies, with some using profanity to express their frustration.
Demonstrators gathered near the scene and chanted, “ICE off our streets now!” before marching toward the hospital where Belgal had initially received treatment. The protest reflected wider opposition to federal immigration enforcement practices, particularly operations involving officers in plain clothes and the use of firearms during vehicle stops.
The situation became more confrontational near the hospital entrance, where a sizable crowd blocked an intersection. Police officers began placing barricades to maintain access for ambulances and other vehicles. Some protesters pushed against the barriers and threw water bottles at officers, prompting further clashes.
Police subsequently made several arrests as tensions continued around the barricades. The demonstrations highlighted the difficulties facing local authorities as they sought to maintain public access and control the crowd while responding to an incident involving federal officers.
Pedro Almaraz, an employee at a nearby restaurant, said he heard several gunshots and saw a man on the ground surrounded by masked officers wearing vests bearing Department of Homeland Security branding. He recalled hearing witnesses screaming as the scene unfolded.
Videos and photographs shared by bystanders on social media offered additional views of the immediate aftermath. One video showed a man sitting on the ground with his hands behind his back. Another showed New York City police officers lifting Belgal and carrying him into a police vehicle.
A damaged car remained in the roadway after the shooting, with small holes visible in two of its windows. Tisch said the vehicle had a bullet entry point in the front windshield and an exit point in one of the rear windows.
The images and witness accounts helped document the aftermath, but they did not independently establish the full sequence of events or explain why the federal officer fired.
DHS defended the broader approach taken by its officers, arguing that immigration agents often face unpredictable and dangerous circumstances when making arrests in public spaces. The agency criticized what it called “reckless sanctuary policies” in Democratic-led jurisdictions, claiming that restrictions on cooperation with federal immigration authorities can leave officers making arrests in less controlled environments.
The term “sanctuary jurisdiction” does not have one universally accepted definition. It generally refers to state or local governments that limit certain forms of cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The extent and nature of those policies vary among jurisdictions.
The shooting also renewed scrutiny of ICE officers’ use of firearms during vehicle stops. Immigration agents have fired their weapons during more than a dozen such encounters since last year, killing at least four people and injuring others, according to the information provided by officials.
In late September, ICE directed officers not to engage in high-speed vehicle pursuits and instructed them to conduct vehicle stops only after completing specific training. The guidance came amid concerns about the dangers associated with vehicle encounters and the potential for injuries or fatalities.
For residents of Marble Hill, the incident raised immediate concerns about safety and the ability to distinguish federal officers from other people carrying weapons.
Alfred Silva, a 38-year-old neighborhood resident, called for immigration agents to identify themselves more clearly during enforcement operations. He pointed to the construction-style safety vest reportedly worn by one of the officers as an example of why residents could struggle to recognize law enforcement personnel.
Silva said clearer identification and greater transparency were necessary to help the public understand who was carrying out an operation and whether an individual approaching a vehicle was a legitimate officer.
The shooting has placed renewed pressure on federal authorities to explain the decisions made during the arrest attempt, while city and state officials continue to question the conduct of immigration enforcement operations in New York.
The publicly described accounts had not provided a complete explanation of the decision to fire seven rounds or resolved the questions surrounding the encounter. The case is likely to remain a point of tension between the Trump administration and Democratic leaders in New York as officials face demands for accountability and clearer safeguards for civilians during federal arrests.