ICE Shooting Leaves NY Father Detained and Wounded

Oscar Belgal remains detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, with a bullet lodged in his neck, his lawyers say. An immigration officer shot him as he drove with his young son. In a court petition filed Wednesday, his lawyers say the officer never identified himself before breaking Belgal’s car window and firing. Belgal still hasn’t had surgery to remove the bullet, they say, and he has lost sensation on the left side of his face and has impaired hearing.

What the Petition Says

The Legal Aid Society filed the petition in Brooklyn federal court, asking for Belgal’s release. It says he picked up his son from school on Oct. 8 and stopped in front of a fire hydrant while looking for a parking spot. According to his lawyers, a masked man approached with his gun drawn, followed by other masked men carrying guns.

“The men did not identify themselves, show any documents or otherwise communicate with Oscar in any substantive way,” the lawyers wrote. They say the first man struck the driver’s-side window with his gun and shattered it, then fired several shots into the car as Belgal’s son cowered in the back seat. One bullet hit Belgal in the neck. He began bleeding immediately.

Belgal’s lawyers say he didn’t learn the men were ICE officers until he awoke in the hospital. They also allege officers failed to give him immediate medical assistance after shooting him. Perry McAninch and Elyssa Williams, the lawyers representing Belgal, said in a statement that officers shot him in front of his five year-old son and that he remains held at a facility they called “notorious for medical neglect.”

What the Footage Shows

New York City police security-camera footage released last week captures part of the encounter, but doesn’t conclusively establish how the shooting happened. It shows a man in a sweatshirt and red hat running toward Belgal’s car with his gun pointed at him. The man strikes the driver’s-side window with the gun barrel. The window shatters on the second blow.

A second officer appears beside the car and draws his gun. Belgal pulls into the street, away from the officers, and his car leaves the camera’s view as the officer in the red hat pursues it. The NYPD cameras don’t capture what happens next. The chase ends moments later, according to the article’s account, with Belgal’s damaged car against a concrete barrier. The windshield and a rear window have bullet holes.

Bystander video and NYPD body-camera footage show ICE officers handcuffing Belgal and tending to the wound in his neck as he sits on the pavement outside the car. NYPD officers then take him to a nearby hospital.

The Government’s Account

Department of Homeland Security officials say ICE officers fired because they believed their lives were in danger. They say officers opened fire only after Belgal smashed his car into two government vehicles and “accelerated toward other officers.” DHS didn’t comment Wednesday on the lawyers’ claims, saying the incident remains under investigation.

At a news conference last week, Marcos Charles, head of ICE’s enforcement and removal operations, said Belgal refused orders to leave his vehicle, then accelerated and smashed into two government vehicles as officers tried to block him from driving away. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said officers didn’t know a child was in the car and blamed Belgal for putting his son’s life in danger.

The two accounts leave the central sequence disputed. Police footage shows an armed officer striking the window and Belgal driving away, but it doesn’t show the later gunfire or collision. Belgal’s petition asks the court to release him while he remains detained and faces the consequences of the shooting without surgery to remove the bullet, according to his lawyers.