A federal immigration officer shot a Dominican man in the neck Thursday afternoon as he drove through Marble Hill with a 5-year-old boy in the car, officials said. By Thursday night, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani had called the president.
The wounded man, identified as Oscar Belgal, survived. Mamdani called the shooting an outrage and demanded ICE’s abolition. He also urged the Trump administration to halt immigration enforcement operations in New York, arguing that the agency undermines public safety instead of protecting it.
What Happened in Marble Hill
The facts available so far are thin, and they’re contested. The Department of Homeland Security said the officer was trying to arrest Belgal in what it called a “targeted enforcement operation.” The department described him as a “criminal illegal alien” with a grand larceny conviction and a history of other arrests.
The department’s account doesn’t address the child. A 5-year-old boy was in the car when a federal officer shot the driver in the neck. Officials haven’t said more about the boy’s condition or what he witnessed, and the basic facts don’t explain how an arrest operation ended in gunfire inside a vehicle carrying a young child.
Two Hours on the Phone
Mamdani said he spent two hours Thursday night pressing President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to release the wounded man and stop immigration enforcement operations in the city. His push didn’t produce the outcome he wanted. Federal authorities removed Belgal from the hospital late Thursday night and took him away, Mamdani said.
That detail matters. A man shot in the neck left a hospital bed within hours and entered federal custody. The account raises questions about who is responsible for his medical care and who answers for the decision to use deadly force in the first place.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat, said she delivered a similar message to Trump and Mullin by phone. Her involvement shows the demand isn’t coming from City Hall alone. New York’s two most prominent elected Democrats went directly to the president and his homeland security chief that same night.
The Accountability Question
DHS has framed the shooting around Belgal’s record, pointing to a grand larceny conviction and other arrests. A criminal history, though, doesn’t explain what happened inside that car. It doesn’t show why force was used, or settle whether its use was justified with a child present.
Mamdani’s position is that ICE operations make the city less safe, not more. The shooting, in a residential neighborhood in the middle of an afternoon, gives that argument a concrete and troubling example. Available reporting hasn’t said whether federal officials will review the officer’s conduct.
Why This Matters:
A federal officer shot a man in a car with a 5-year-old inside, and federal authorities then removed him from the hospital within hours. Those facts raise basic questions about oversight of immigration enforcement: who reviews deadly force, who answers to local officials, and what protections exist for bystanders, especially children. Mamdani and Hochul both took their concerns directly to the president, showing how far city and state leaders stand from federal enforcement strategy. Until DHS explains what happened in the car and why Belgal left medical care, communities across New York will have little reason to trust that these operations are accountable.