ICE agent fires 7 shots into a car with a 5-year-old inside. Now New York wants ICE out

It was just after 4pm on Thursday, the hour when schools let out.

A grey Honda CR-V was backing into a parking spot in Marble Hill, a small New York City neighbourhood at the top of Manhattan. A 5-year-old boy sat inside. Police believe he is the driver's son.

A man in plain clothes walked up to the driver's window with his gun drawn. Moments later, at least one federal officer fired seven rounds.

The driver, Oscar Belgal, 28, was hit in the neck just below his left ear. The boy was not hurt.

What happened in the ICE shooting in Marble Hill?

The officers were from ICE, the US agency that arrests and deports people who are in the country illegally. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which runs ICE, says they were on a "targeted enforcement operation" to arrest Belgal.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch gave the most detailed account. She said NYPD street cameras filmed the start. A plain-clothes officer came to the driver's side window with his gun out. A second officer, also not in uniform, walked to the front of the car.

Then the car began to move forward, out of the camera's view. The cameras did not capture the shooting itself.

Tisch said the NYPD had no part in the operation before the shots. Officers on a nearby call ran over when people reported gunfire. They found men in construction vests and face masks, at least one carrying a rifle, and Belgal on the ground in handcuffs.

NYPD officers gave him first aid and drove him to NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital. He arrived in a stable condition. Police said he was conscious, and sources told the New York Post his wounds were not life-threatening.

Photo: Dwayne Bent from United States / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

Was the child in the car hurt?

No. Tisch said the 5-year-old was physically unharmed. Police later found him safe with a relative.

What he saw is another matter. A 67-year-old neighbour told the New York Post she heard the shots and ran outside. She said the boy was screaming for his father while officers held Belgal on the ground.

Photos from the scene showed bullet holes in the back of the SUV.

Who is Oscar Belgal?

DHS says Belgal is from the Dominican Republic and in the US illegally. It says he has a conviction for grand larceny and earlier arrests for assault, robbery, drugs and weapons. DHS also links him to the Trinitarios, a gang the US justice department calls a transnational criminal group.

The NYPD's own records are narrower. Police told the New York Post he has two arrests in the city. The first was a 2023 robbery case, where he pleaded guilty to fourth-degree grand larceny and got five years' probation. The second is a 2025 drug sale case that is still open.

DHS blamed the city. It says the NYPD arrested Belgal on 7 December 2023 and let him go "a few days later" because of what it called reckless sanctuary policies. New York, like several Democratic cities, bars its police from helping with federal immigration arrests.

Why did the ICE agent shoot?

DHS has not said publicly what made the officer fire. Two law enforcement officials told NBC New York that Belgal tried to "ram his vehicle" into the officer. That claim has not been backed up by any footage so far.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani rejected that. "There is no explanation for federal officers firing this many rounds into a car that has a 5-year-old in the car," he said.

Is Marble Hill in Manhattan or the Bronx?

Both, in a way, which is why early reports disagreed. Marble Hill is legally part of Manhattan. But in 1914 the creek that cut it off from the Bronx was filled in, so today it sits on the Bronx mainland.

The shooting happened across the street from the Target at the Shops at Marble Hill. Days earlier, on Monday, local lawmakers had written to the shopping centre's owners. They asked them to stop federal agents using the Target car park as a staging area for raids.

What did Mamdani say to Trump?

Mamdani held a press conference near the scene just before midnight. Protesters chanted over him and some called him complicit.

He said he had spent two hours on the phone with President Trump and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. He was trying to get the wounded man released. "Those negotiations were unsuccessful," he said.

Moments before he spoke, around 11pm, ICE agents put Belgal into an unmarked vehicle and drove him away from the hospital. Officials did not say where he was taken. A local congressman, Adriano Espaillat, said he went to visit Belgal and was not allowed into the room.

Mamdani called ICE "rotten to its core" and said it "must be abolished". He wants ICE to stop all enforcement in New York City.

The White House did not back down. Border czar Tom Homan told reporters, "If you're in the country illegally you have a problem." Trump has not commented publicly on the shooting.

Photo: White House / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Will the ICE body camera footage be released?

Governor Kathy Hochul says she also called Trump and Mullin. She asked them to halt ICE operations in New York, and to release any body camera footage of the shooting "so we can establish the facts".

Espaillat wants all footage and evidence kept safe, plus a full investigation. DHS says the shooting is under investigation, and the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations were at the scene on Thursday night.

The pressure on ICE officers to make arrests is growing. ABC News sources say ICE recently raised its daily arrest target by half. Federal officials say it is not a quota.

2,000.00Before

3,000.00Now

See the numbers

Before	2,000.00
Now	3,000.00

Source: ABC News sources, reported by ABC7 New York, 9 Oct 2026. Federal officials say it is not a quota.

Why are people protesting ICE in New York?

Hundreds of people gathered in Marble Hill on Thursday night. They chanted "ICE out of the Bronx" and marched to the hospital. At one point a crowd pinned a masked ICE agent against a wall until NYPD officers pulled him back, the New York Daily News reported.

Police arrested four protesters outside the hospital. They were charged with obstructing government work and given tickets to appear in court.

The anger has a history. In January, federal agents in Minneapolis killed two US citizens, Renee Good, a mother of three, and Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse. Protests spread to hundreds of cities.

Since then ICE has grown to more than 22,000 agents. It has about $75 billion over four years and a goal of one million deportations a year. The White House rarely gives ground on any of this, as Karoline Leavitt's briefings show, and the hard line runs from immigration to Hegseth's plan for a public firing squad.

Photo: King of Hearts / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

What happens next?

Belgal is in federal custody. His family has spoken to Espaillat and, he says, they are shaken. In France that week, a mayor made headlines for standing between police and the students in his town. In New York, the mayor stood at a police tape and could not even get a wounded man out of an ICE car.

Police cameras filmed an officer walking up with his gun out. They did not film what came next. Someone did, if the officers wore body cameras, and the governor of New York has asked for it.

At least seven shell casings were found on the street. Whatever that footage shows will decide which side of this story New York believes.