Outrage erupted in New York after a federal immigration officer fired seven shots at a car carrying a 5-year-old child, striking the driver in the neck during an attempted arrest that has prompted fierce criticism of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and renewed questions about the Trump administration’s enforcement tactics.
The shooting happened Thursday afternoon in Marble Hill, a Manhattan neighborhood, when plainclothes federal officers approached 28-year-old Oscar Belgal as he pulled into a parking space. According to New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Belgal began moving the vehicle forward before at least one officer fired seven rounds. One bullet struck him below the left ear.
The child, who was in the back seat, was not injured.
Belgal survived and was taken to a hospital before federal authorities transferred him to a detention facility outside New York, according to reporting by the Associated Press and CBS New York.
The shooting triggered immediate protests and condemnation from city officials, who questioned why immigration officers were carrying out the operation in plain clothes and whether the use of deadly force was justified.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the shooting an outrage and demanded an end to federal immigration enforcement operations in the city. Gov. Kathy Hochul also criticized the incident and said she had raised her concerns with President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
The administration, however, has forcefully defended the officers.
Federal officials say Belgal was the subject of a targeted enforcement operation and allege that he drove toward officers and rammed government vehicles, creating a danger to their safety. Mullin said Friday that the officers did not know a child was in the car.
The Department of Homeland Security also pointed to Belgal’s prior grand larceny conviction and pending drug-related case. Those allegations and his criminal history, however, do not by themselves resolve the central question surrounding the shooting: whether the officers’ use of force was justified under the circumstances.
The sequence of events remains a critical issue. City officials have said an NYPD security camera recorded some of the events leading up to the gunfire, although it did not capture the shooting itself. The NYPD later released body-camera footage showing officers arriving after the shots were fired and rushing Belgal to the hospital.
The federal officers involved were reportedly wearing plain clothes, masks and reflective construction-style vests, making it difficult for bystanders to identify them as law enforcement. That detail has added to concerns about how the operation unfolded in a public street with a young child in the vehicle.
The shooting also prompted demonstrations near the scene and at the hospital where Belgal was initially treated. Protesters condemned ICE’s tactics, while some clashes with police resulted in arrests.
The dispute has since widened into a confrontation between the Trump administration and New York officials over immigration enforcement. Federal authorities blamed so-called sanctuary policies for the incident, while city leaders argued that the operation raises serious questions about accountability and the use of force.
The incident comes amid a broader pattern of confrontations involving ICE officers and vehicles. The Associated Press has reported that ICE agents have fired their weapons during more than a dozen vehicle stops since last year, killing several people and wounding others.
The seven shots fired in Marble Hill are now at the center of a growing demand for answers. Officials and residents want a fuller account of what happened before the gunfire, what the officers knew, and what evidence supports the federal government’s justification.
With a child in the back seat and the driver shot in the neck, the stakes are unmistakable. The release of additional video and a transparent review of the shooting will be crucial to determining whether the use of force was warranted.
