Elected officials representing North Brooklyn joined Mayor Zohran Mamdani in condemning U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after an ICE officer shot a man in his car Thursday in Marble Hill as his 5-year-old son sat in the back seat.
At least one officer fired seven rounds into the car around 4 p.m., hitting Oscar Belgal, 28, below his left ear, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. The boy was not hurt, The Associated Press reported.
The Department of Homeland Security said officers were conducting “a targeted enforcement operation” to arrest Belgal, whom it described as a man from the Dominican Republic with a grand larceny conviction and “associations to the Trinitarios gang.” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the agents feared for their lives and that Belgal rammed two vehicles, ABC7 New York reported. DHS said the officers did not know a child was in the car.
Tisch gave a different account, saying a plainclothes federal officer approached with his gun drawn as Belgal pulled into a parking space, and that at least one officer fired as Belgal began to pull forward, according to the AP.
Belgal was treated at NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital and taken into federal custody. On Friday, U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken temporarily barred the government from deporting him while a petition challenging his detention is pending.
“I am angry tonight,” Mamdani wrote on Instagram late Thursday. “ICE makes this city less safe. We want them out. Now.”
Mamdani, Davila and Williams each described the man as “a New Yorker.” DHS disputed that in a release Friday titled “DHS Debunks New York Sanctuary Politicians’ Lies About ICE Shooting of Illegal Alien Gang Member,” which named Mamdani. “CLAIM: A New Yorker was shot by ICE agents in Marble Hill,” the department posted. “FACT: This ‘New Yorker’ is a criminal illegal alien from the Dominican Republic.”
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso faulted both federal agents and City Hall. “From Wyckoff to Marble Hill, NYC isn’t doing enough to fight ICE,” he wrote on X on Friday. He called on the Mamdani administration to “stick with its commitment to disbanding the SRG,” the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group, and on the City Council to “hold any city employee who violates our sanctuary laws accountable.”
Assemblywoman Maritza Davila, who represents Bushwick and Williamsburg, called for “a full, independent investigation and the immediate release of all available body-camera footage.”
“No child should ever have to witness such violence,” Davila wrote on Instagram. “The next step must be the abolition of ICE.”
Council Member Lincoln Restler wrote on X that he could not “comprehend how any law enforcement personnel could shoot 7 rounds into a car with a 5 yr old child.” “We must abolish ICE,” Restler wrote.
State Sen. Jabari Brisport replied directly to ICE’s statement on X. “Have some shame for what you did,” Brisport wrote. “You were not welcome in the Bronx yesterday, and you are not welcome in NYC ever.”
Brisport, state Sen. Julia Salazar, Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher and Queens Assemblywoman Claire Valdez were among nine state legislators and eight Democratic nominees in the New York State Socialists in Office group who signed a joint statement Friday calling ICE agents “a threat to public safety, due process, and the rule of law.”
“Abolishing ICE is the bare minimum,” the statement said. It also called on Tisch to end police assistance for ICE operations and to disband the Strategic Response Group, saying that “if she won’t, she must be fired.”
Council Member Chi Ossé, who represents Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, posted a graphic on Instagram on Thursday that read: “ICE JUST SHOT SOMEONE IN THE BRONX. ABOLISH ICE YESTERDAY.”
City Comptroller Mark Levine called the shooting “the predictable, PLANNED result” of ICE’s policies. “This madness has to stop. In NYC and everywhere,” Levine wrote on X. On Friday, he urged Target’s board to commission an independent review of any cooperation between the company and ICE, saying agents “reportedly used the Marble Hill Target parking lot as a staging area.”
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams spoke at a news conference in Marble Hill on Thursday night. “A father picking up his child was shot by a rogue agency controlled by Donald Trump,” Williams said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul called for a pause in all ICE actions in New York, ABC7 reported.
In Brooklyn, Reynoso’s office and the group Hands Off NYC scheduled a “Know Your Rights” canvass for 11 a.m. Saturday in Cypress Hills, where, Reynoso wrote, “neighbors have reported an uptick in ICE sightings.” Rep. Nydia Velázquez, Council Member Sandy Nurse and the public advocate’s office are listed as partners on the event’s flyer. Reynoso’s office also scheduled an Oct. 15 training at Brooklyn Borough Hall for attorneys representing detained immigrants in federal habeas corpus petitions.
The city’s Immigration Legal Support Hotline is 1-800-354-0365; callers can also dial 311 and say “Immigration Legal.”
Marble Hill is a small part of Manhattan attached to the Bronx; ICE described the location as the Bronx. In its statement, the agency said that because of “radical sanctuary politicians,” its officers “are forced to make arrests at large in the community in unpredictable and dangerous environments.”
Belgal’s lawyers, from Make the Road New York, said he remains in pain and still has a bullet in his body, ABC7 reported.
Featured image: Kara McCurdy / Mayoral Photography Office
