ICE officer shoots man in New York as five-year-old son sits in back seat

A federal immigration officer shot and wounded a man in New York City on Thursday, 8 October 2026, as he sat in his car with his five-year-old son, prompting protests and condemnation from city and state leaders.

The man, identified by the New York Police Department (NYPD) as Oscar Belgal, 28, from the Dominican Republic, survived a gunshot wound to the neck. The child was unharmed and was later with a relative.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers were conducting a “targeted enforcement operation” to arrest Belgal, whom it described as a “criminal illegal alien” with a grand larceny conviction.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has defended the officers. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the shooting an outrage and has called for ICE to be abolished.

Seven rounds fired in Marble Hill

The shooting took place at about 4pm in Marble Hill, a small part of Manhattan attached to the Bronx, according to the Associated Press (AP).

Mamdani said school had just finished and “the street was crowded with families and children”, according to the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS).

Speaking near the scene late on Thursday, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Belgal was pulling into a parking space when a plainclothes federal officer approached the driver’s side window with his gun drawn.

A second federal officer, also not in uniform, approached the driver’s side headlight. Tisch said Belgal began to move the car forward, and at least one officer then fired seven rounds, striking him below his left ear.

Tisch said an NYPD security camera recorded events leading up to the gunfire but not the shooting itself. City police were not involved in the operation but responded after hearing the shots.

According to Tisch, the car was left with a bullet entry point on its front windscreen and an exit point in a rear window.

In its initial statement, DHS did not describe what led to the shooting, saying only that “during the incident, an ICE officer discharged his weapon”.

Officials dispute whether officers were identifiable

At a news conference on Friday, 9 October 2026, Mullin said officers opened fire while trying to arrest a man with a criminal history. “We weren’t aware the child was in the car,” he said, according to the BBC.

Mullin argued that it was Belgal who had put his child in danger. He said the officers had identified themselves and were wearing body-worn cameras that were switched on during the incident.

Marcos Charles, head of enforcement and removal operations at ICE, said officers used their vehicles to try to stop Belgal, but he refused orders to get out and instead accelerated, crashing into two ICE vehicles.

Charles said Belgal then “weaponised his vehicle” and drove towards other officers. He said officers, believing their lives and those of the public were in danger, fired their weapons.

Charles said Belgal was struck “superficially in the neck” by a bullet or fragment. The BBC reported that the number of officers who fired is under investigation.

Mamdani disputed the officers’ account of identification. “They wore construction vests and masks that concealed their faces. There is no reasonable way to identify them as ICE agents,” he said.

Pedro Almaraz, who works at a nearby restaurant, told AP he heard several gunshots and saw a man on the ground surrounded by masked officers wearing vests bearing DHS branding.

NYPD body-worn camera footage released on Friday shows officers arriving and attempting to help Belgal. One ICE officer appears to be wearing a neon construction vest and carrying a large gun, the BBC reported.

The footage shows NYPD officers calling for an ambulance, placing Belgal in a police car, driving him to hospital and carrying him inside.

According to WSWS, Mullin said DHS would not release the ICE body camera footage until a later date.

Belgal held in Brooklyn with bullet still lodged

Mamdani said he spent two hours on Thursday night pressing President Donald Trump and Mullin to release Belgal, without success. He said federal authorities later removed Belgal from the hospital.

According to WSWS, Mullin said on Friday that Belgal had been placed in a detention facility outside New York state and that DHS would pursue removal proceedings against him.

Belgal’s lawyers later said he had been moved to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. At a hearing on Friday, attorney Paige Austin told the judge that Belgal “still has a bullet in his body”.

Austin said Belgal had been able to make only a brief phone call within the hour before the hearing. The BBC said it could not independently confirm his medical condition.

“The first thing he asked me, is whether his son is OK,” attorney Harold Solis said outside court. He added that a person should not be shot in a car with a child in the back seat.

A cousin and an aunt were among friends and relatives who attended the hearing but did not speak to the press.

Allegations regarding Belgal’s record

DHS said Belgal had a prior conviction for grand larceny and multiple prior arrests for assault, robbery, drug possession and weapons possession. It said he was arrested in December 2023 and released a few days later.

Tisch said Belgal was arrested on a robbery charge in 2023, later pleaded guilty to grand larceny and was sentenced to probation. A 2025 charge of criminal sale of a controlled substance remains pending.

Electronic court records show Belgal has pleaded not guilty in the drug case, AP reported.

DHS has also alleged that Belgal was associated with the Trinitarios, which the US Department of Justice describes as a transnational criminal group.

Mullin said DHS believed Belgal had “either indirect or direct knowledge” of a shooting involving a US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer, and that this was why he became a target.

According to WSWS, Mullin described Belgal as a “thug” and an “attempted murderer” at the briefing. WSWS noted that no ICE officer was reported injured.

Mamdani and Hochul condemn shooting

“There is no justification for what we have seen today,” Mamdani said on Thursday, later describing the incident as “unconscionable and incredibly serious”. He said he would ask Trump to end ICE enforcement in New York.

Mullin has said enforcement will not be paused. Trump had not commented publicly on the shooting at the time of the BBC’s report.

Governor Kathy Hochul said she had delivered a similar message to Trump and Mullin by phone, and that federal officials needed to provide answers quickly.

“New Yorkers have witnessed far too many acts of violence by a rogue federal agency and untrained agents that operate with impunity,” Hochul said.

City Council Member Carmen De La Rosa, who emigrated from the Dominican Republic and represents Marble Hill, said: “We are heartbroken and enraged.” AP reported that other officials cursed ICE and Trump.

DHS blamed “reckless sanctuary policies” in Democrat-led areas, saying officers are forced to make arrests in “unpredictable and dangerous environments”. AP noted that there is no clear definition of sanctuary jurisdictions.

Protesters clash with police

Demonstrators at the scene chanted “ICE off our streets now!” before marching to the hospital where Belgal was being treated. A sizeable crowd blocked an intersection at the hospital entrance, AP reported.

As police set up barricades to let ambulances pass, some protesters pushed against the barriers and threw water bottles at officers. Further clashes followed, and police made several arrests.

WSWS reported that the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group was deployed against protesters on Thursday night and that police escorted the ICE officers away from the scene.

A further protest took place at Foley Square on Friday evening. One protester told WSWS she wanted all footage released and hoped demonstrators would “shut down the whole city”.

Marble Hill resident Alfred Silva, 38, told AP that federal officers should identify themselves more clearly. “Anybody in the street can just put on a vest and pull out a gun and claim to be ICE,” he said.

Rise in shootings by immigration officers

AP reported that ICE agents have fired their weapons during more than a dozen vehicle stops since last year, killing at least four people and wounding others.

In late September, ICE ordered its officers not to engage in high-speed car chases and to conduct vehicle stops only after completing specific training, according to AP.

A tally by The New York Times, cited by WSWS, found that at least 25 people have been shot by immigration officers since Trump returned to the White House.

By comparison, an internal ICE committee recorded three incidents of agents firing their weapons in fiscal year 2024, and five the year before, according to the same report.

Data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), cited by WSWS, showed that as of 11 July 2026, 46,436 of the 65,765 people in ICE detention, or 70.6 per cent, had no criminal conviction.

On 20 September 2026, an ICE agent shot delivery driver Wilber Garces Perez in the back in Austin, Texas. According to WSWS, he waited 11 days for surgery to remove the bullet and remains in federal custody.

In January, Renee Good was killed in an ICE shooting in Minneapolis, the BBC reported. WSWS noted that DHS had offered similar justifications in several fatal shootings, including those of Good and Ruben Ray Martinez, both US citizens.