Gunfire on a quiet Marble Hill block: what we know, and don’t, about the ICE shooting
An attempted immigration arrest at the top of Manhattan turned violent Thursday afternoon. A 28-year-old man was shot in the neck while his five-year-old sat in the back seat, and New York City and the federal government are once again at odds over what happened. Many basic questions remain unanswered.
The shooting
Tisch said one or more ICE officers fired at least seven rounds at roughly 4 p.m., close to the corner of Marble Hill Avenue and West 225th Street. A bullet struck Oscar Belgal below the left ear. She said he reached NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital in stable condition. A law enforcement source told CNN the wound was a graze and not life-threatening, according to CNN’s reporting. (ICE agent fires 7 rounds, shoots man in neck in NYC’s Marble Hill, NYPD says – Gothamist +2)
Marble Hill is politically part of Manhattan but sits on the mainland, attached to the Bronx. That is why accounts place the shooting in both boroughs.
Tisch said police surveillance footage shows a plainclothes federal officer approaching the driver’s side of Belgal’s gray Honda CR-V with a gun drawn. A second officer approached the front. After that, the vehicle edged ahead and passed out of the frame. The gunfire itself was not recorded. Police later recovered the vehicle with a damaged windshield and shattered rear window, and at least seven shell casings from the street. (gothamist)
Orlando Perez, who lives in a building at the scene, told Gothamist he dove to the floor. It felt to him like the gunfire was headed his way, he said.
A child in the car
A five-year-old boy believed to be Belgal’s son was in the vehicle. Tisch said the child was later found safe in the care of a family member. Officials say he was physically unharmed. (gothamist)
DHS’s account
Homeland Security says agents were out to arrest a Dominican national, and it pointed to a grand larceny conviction on his record along with a handful of other arrests. The agency also claims he has links to the Trinitarios gang. DHS also blamed local “sanctuary” policies for his release after a December 2023 arrest. (fox5ny)
The statement did not explain why an officer fired. It said only that an officer “discharged his weapon.” Tisch’s account of Belgal’s record is narrower than DHS’s. She said he has been arrested twice in New York City. Her version: a 2023 robbery arrest that he resolved by pleading guilty to fourth-degree grand larceny, which got him five years of probation. A drug-sale charge from 2025 hasn’t been resolved yet. DHS’s gang allegation is its own claim, and I could not independently confirm it.
One report, which I found only in a secondary outlet, cited two unnamed sources saying Belgal tried to ram his vehicle into officers. But neither DHS nor the NYPD has put that on the record, so for now it stays unconfirmed. The footage, as Tisch described it, shows the vehicle moving ahead, but that alone doesn’t tell us what the driver intended.
Who helped the wounded man
Accounts differ on the aftermath. DHS said its officers rendered aid. Tisch said NYPD officers responding to an unrelated call nearby found Belgal handcuffed on the ground. They gave him aid, put him in a police vehicle and drove him to the hospital. Sources told amNewYork the same thing, and the outlet reported that NYPD officers, not federal agents, helped him. (gothamist) (amny)
Tisch said the NYPD had no role in the operation and no city officers were present when the shots were fired. She said officers who arrived met men in mixed clothing, some in construction-style vests and masks, at least one holding a long gun. The federal government is now running the investigation, and both HSI and the FBI had personnel at the scene.
Political fallout
Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the shooting “unconscionable” and renewed his call to abolish ICE. He said he spent about two hours on the phone with President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin trying to secure Belgal’s release. He said those talks failed and that ICE moved Belgal to an unmarked vehicle and took him away. (gothamist)
Gov. Kathy Hochul said she also spoke with Trump and Mullin. She asked them to halt ICE operations in New York and to release any body-camera footage. CNN asked DHS whether the officers wore body cameras. I found no public answer. (CNN)
Others pressed for outside scrutiny. Murad Awawdeh, who heads the New York Immigration Coalition, wants the state attorney general to lead an investigation, with the NYPD and the district attorney working alongside. At the scene he objected to HSI investigating a shooting by its own agency. Rep. Adriano Espaillat said agents denied him access to Belgal at the hospital, according to amNewYork. City Council Speaker Julie Menin said she worried about the fear the shooting would spread among immigrant New Yorkers.
Protests that night
By about 9 p.m., hundreds of people had gathered near West 220th Street and Broadway. Gothamist’s reporter saw clashes with police, including at least two people in handcuffs and thrown water bottles. Officers put up barricades so ambulances could still get through.
A neighborhood already on edge
The shooting followed days of local concern about ICE activity. On Oct. 5, eight elected officials representing the West Bronx and Upper Manhattan sent a letter to the owners of the nearby shopping center. They asked them and Target to bar ICE from using the lot at 40 West 225th Street as a staging area. Council Member Pierina Sanchez said the shooting happened near where agents have reportedly been gathering. A Target spokesperson said the shooting was not on or next to company property and that the company has no agreement with ICE. It remains unclear whether the shooting was connected to the staging reports. (gothamist)
It also comes amid a string of use-of-force incidents involving immigration agents. CNN noted a Sept. 20 ICE shooting in Austin, Texas, that wounded a Venezuelan man. amNewYork also recalled the fatal shootings of two civilians in Minneapolis earlier this year.
