ICE Officials Defend Marble Hill Shooting as Judge Bars Deportation of Oscar Belgal

NEW YORK — Federal immigration officials on Friday defended the officers who shot and wounded Oscar Belgal during an attempted arrest in the Marble Hill neighborhood, saying the officers did not know that Belgal’s 5-year-old son was sitting in the back seat when they opened fire, according to Reuters.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said at a news conference on Oct. 9 that Belgal put officers and the child at risk by using his vehicle as a weapon, according to Reuters. Marcos Charles, a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, said Belgal declined to get out of the car, then accelerated, hit two ICE vehicles and drove toward other officers, according to Reuters.

The defense came a day after the Oct. 8 shooting, in which Belgal, 28, was wounded in the neck and the child was not physically hurt, according to police accounts reported by Reuters and USA Today. City officials said at least seven rounds were fired, according to USA Today.

City leaders and federal officials give opposing accounts

Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the shooting an outrage and said he had spent time on the phone with President Donald Trump and Mullin seeking Belgal’s release, without success, according to Reuters. Mullin responded on Friday by criticizing New York’s sanctuary policies, which limit cooperation between city agencies and immigration authorities, according to Reuters.

New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said surveillance video showed a plainclothes officer approaching the driver’s window with a gun drawn while another officer moved toward the front of the car, before the vehicle moved out of view, according to USA Today. No video of the shooting itself has been released publicly. Mullin said body-camera footage exists and would eventually be released, according to Reuters.

Federal officials said Belgal, a Dominican national, is in the country without authorization and has a criminal record that includes a grand larceny conviction that resulted in five years of probation in April 2025, according to Reuters. Belgal also faces a pending drug case from 2025, according to the city’s police commissioner as reported by Reuters. Federal officials have also accused Belgal of gang ties, a claim reported by USA Today.

A court fight over where Belgal will be held

Attorneys for Belgal filed an emergency petition after the shooting asking a judge to order his release, arguing that officers arrested him without a valid warrant and without the assessment of flight risk or danger that federal law requires, according to USA Today. The petition also argued that shooting him with his son in the car violated his due process rights and that holding him while he was hospitalized showed deliberate indifference to his medical needs, according to USA Today.

After Belgal was taken from a Manhattan hospital, his lawyers said they spent much of the next day trying to determine where he had been taken, according to USA Today. Mullin said on Oct. 9 that Belgal had been moved to a detention facility outside New York but did not name the location, according to USA Today.

U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken barred ICE from deporting Belgal while the court considers the petition and ordered that he be kept in the New York City area or New Jersey, according to USA Today. Federal prosecutors later told the court that ICE intends to hold Belgal at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, and lawyers for both sides were scheduled to appear before another federal judge in Manhattan at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, according to USA Today.

The Legal Aid Society, which said Belgal is its client, said the child’s presence in the car raised grave concerns about reckless endangerment during immigration enforcement operations, according to USA Today. Gov. Kathy Hochul urged federal officials to provide a full and transparent accounting of the shooting, according to USA Today.

Reporting based on coverage by Reuters and USA Today.