During an immigration enforcement operation in the Marble Hill neighborhood of New York City on October 8, 2026, at least one ICE officer fired seven rounds, striking 28-year-old Oscar Belgal below his left ear, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said; he was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital in stable condition, Gothamist reported. A 5-year-old boy, whom Rep. Adriano Espaillat identified as Belgal's son, was in the car and was not hurt. NYPD surveillance video showed a plainclothes federal officer approaching the driver's window with his gun drawn, according to Tisch; it did not capture the shooting itself. Responding police found “several men in various forms of attire, including some in construction-style vests, face masks and at least one carrying a long gun,” she said.
ICE official Marcos Charles said officers fired because they believed they were in danger and that Belgal was shot “superficially” in the neck as officers tried to arrest him; Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said agents did not know the child was in the car but that Belgal “was aware” and chose to evade officers, the AP reported. Tisch said Belgal had a 2023 robbery arrest that ended in a guilty plea to grand larceny and a pending 2025 drug-sale arrest. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he spent hours on the phone with Trump and Mullin trying to negotiate Belgal's release: “Those negotiations were unsuccessful. Just moments ago, ICE put the man in an unmarked vehicle and whisked him away.” Mullin: “No, we're not putting a pause on enforcement.”
Wired identified an ICE supervisor seen on video at the scene with a rifle, Brenden Cuni, as an officer whom a federal judge found two days earlier had falsified the basis for a warrant: “Cuni attempted to reconcile these falsehoods by subsequently collecting the information, adding it to those systems and, after issuing the warrant, searching the databases again to 'find' him,” Judge Gary Brown wrote, the New York Daily News reported. Wired does not say Cuni fired the shots. Federal agencies have taken over the investigation (see Federal Immigration Officers Have Fatally Shot at Least 10 People Since Trump's Second Term Began).
Update (October 12, 2026): on CNN's State of the Union on October 11, Mullin answered questions about the shooting by pointing to immigrants in state prison: “All 258 of those individuals took an American life, and all 258 deaths were 100 percent preventable, because those illegals shouldn't be here.” Asked whether ICE body-camera footage would be released, he said, “I'm sure it will be,” once the FBI and HSI finish investigating. U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken ordered that Belgal remain in the country for now, CNN reported, and Belgal's lawyers said he is in solitary confinement with the bullet still lodged in his neck.