A federal immigration officer shot Oscar Belgal in the neck in Marble Hill on Thursday as Belgal drove with a 5-year-old boy. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani called for ICE to be abolished and its operations halted in the city.
The Federal Operation
The Department of Homeland Security said the officer sought to arrest Belgal in a “targeted enforcement operation.” The department called him a “criminal illegal alien,” citing a grand larceny conviction and a history of other arrests. Those descriptions came from federal authorities.
Officials said the officer shot Belgal in the neck as he drove with the child. The shooting wounded him. It happened in Marble Hill on Thursday afternoon, October 8, according to the dates provided for the incident.
Federal authorities removed Belgal from the hospital late Thursday night and took him away, Mamdani said. His account placed the wounded man in federal custody after the shooting and hospital treatment. The base account doesn't provide further details about Belgal’s condition or where authorities took him.
The federal department described the operation as an effort to arrest Belgal. It didn't describe the shooting beyond its account of the targeted enforcement operation in the information provided. The department said his grand larceny conviction and history of other arrests formed the basis for seeking him.
City Officials’ Response
Mamdani called the shooting an outrage and said ICE undermines public safety. He called for the agency’s abolition and urged the Trump administration to halt immigration enforcement operations in New York.
Mamdani said he spent two hours Thursday night pressing President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to release Belgal and stop the operations. His demand joined two requests: release the wounded man from federal custody and halt immigration enforcement in the city. Federal authorities had removed Belgal from the hospital late Thursday night, Mamdani said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat, said she delivered a similar message to Trump and Mullin by phone. The account doesn't report a response from Trump, Mullin, or the Department of Homeland Security to either official’s request. It also doesn't say federal enforcement operations stopped.
Mamdani’s call for abolition went beyond asking the administration to stop operations in New York. The account reports both positions, but doesn't describe any federal action on either demand. Hochul’s reported intervention was likewise a phone call to Trump and Mullin, with no reported change to the operation or to Belgal’s custody.
The federal account describes an attempted arrest; city officials’ statements focus on the shooting, public safety, and the demand to halt enforcement. The federal government took Belgal from the hospital, while Mamdani and Hochul asked the president and the homeland security secretary to release him. The account gives no further information about the child in the car or the next steps in the case.