On Thursday, October 8, in the Marble Hill neighborhood of the Bronx, New York, around 4:00 p.m., an ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agent, while attempting to arrest a man of Dominican origin who was in a car with his five-year-old son, fired seven shots, wounding the boy in the neck.
The man, named Oscar Belgal, is 28 years old and was taken away, while the child was entrusted to the care of a family member.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani stated during a press conference:
“In the last few hours, I have been on the phone with President Trump and Secretary Mullin to negotiate the release of the man shot by ICE agents.
The negotiations were unsuccessful. Just moments ago, ICE put the man into an unmarked vehicle and quickly took him away.
Let me be clear: what happened today was an outrage, and millions of our fellow citizens are wondering if they will be safe on the streets, in schools, and at their workplaces.
Tonight, a 5-year-old child sits traumatized and terrified.
Tonight, New Yorkers across all five boroughs are wondering whether their civil liberties will be respected, and whether public order really must take the form of a masked man armed with a rifle.
We know that ICE is rotten to the core.
Today’s shooting is yet another devastating confirmation of what we’ve known for a long time: ICE operates with impunity, sowing chaos and terror across the country, and has killed far more of our fellow citizens than it could ever claim to have saved.
We will not accept its cruelty. We know—and I’ve made this clear both to the President and in public—that ICE undermines public safety.”