ICE Officer Shoots Man in Bronx Car With 5-Year-Old in Back Seat, DHS Says

A federal immigration officer shot and wounded a 28-year-old man during a targeted arrest in New York City on Thursday afternoon, with a 5-year-old child seated in the back of the man’s car, according to the Department of Homeland Security and reporting by CNN and USA TODAY.

The shooting happened just after 4 p.m. ET in Marble Hill, a small neighborhood on the Bronx mainland across the Harlem River from Manhattan, according to CNN. Agents with ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations encountered the man during the operation when an officer fired into his vehicle, a law enforcement source told CNN. The man, whom DHS described as a citizen of the Dominican Republic, suffered a graze wound to the neck that was not considered life-threatening, according to the source, and officers drove him to a hospital rather than waiting for an ambulance. The child in the back seat was not injured, according to CNN and Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

DHS said its officers were conducting a targeted operation to arrest the man and that officers provided aid immediately after the shooting. According to DHS, the man has a prior conviction for grand larceny and prior arrests for assault, robbery, drug possession and weapons possession, and has associations with the Trinitarios gang. Federal authorities had not publicly explained what prompted the officer to fire as of Thursday evening, according to CNN. Two agents were also treated at a local hospital after the encounter, according to a law enforcement source cited by CNN, with one possibly injured in a related car accident.

Mayor and governor demand answers as investigation begins

The New York Police Department said its officers were not involved in the shooting and that the man was conscious and receiving medical care after he was taken to a nearby hospital. Homeland Security Investigations took over the shooting investigation, according to a federal source cited by CNN, and city officers later managed crowd control and evidence at the scene as protesters began to gather Thursday evening, according to CNN.

Mamdani said he had called President Donald Trump and would demand an end to ICE enforcement actions in the city, posting, “Get ICE out of our neighborhoods,” according to USA TODAY and CNN. A spokesperson said the mayor and the president had not yet spoken as of Thursday evening, according to CNN. Gov. Kathy Hochul said she had been briefed and urged federal officials to provide what she called a full and transparent accounting of the incident, according to USA TODAY.

At a Thursday night news conference, local elected officials called on DHS to release any body-camera footage and asked the state attorney general to open an independent investigation, according to CNN. CNN reported that DHS did not say in its initial statement whether the officers wore body cameras when asked. The shooting was described by CNN as the first involving ICE agents in New York City since President Trump’s immigration crackdown began, and it followed a local dispute earlier this week over reported ICE use of a nearby store parking lot on West 225th Street, according to USA TODAY.

Reporting based on coverage by CNN and USA TODAY.