Police have released dramatic arrest footage of the 28-year-old Dominican man who was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in New York City on Thursday.
Oscar Belgal was detained after being struck by a bullet in the Marble Hill neighborhood of the Bronx just after 4pm, and video released by the New York Police Department (NYPD) shows him slumped on the ground in the aftermath.
NYPD officers can be seen lifting Belgal into a police cruiser while surrounded by a crowd of angry people who witnessed the shooting, which the city’s Democrat mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has condemned as an ‘outrage’.
It comes after top ICE official Marcos Charles defended the shooting by saying that Belgal ‘weaponized his vehicle’ against agents before they opened fire.
‘He accelerated his vehicle, smashing into two of our government ICE vehicles and then weaponized his vehicle and proceeded to accelerate going towards other officers,’ Charles told a press conference on Friday.
Charles added that ICE officers feared for their safety and that of the public, and ‘used their training’ to respond with gunfire.
Belgal was in a car with his five-year-old son at the time. He survived a bullet wound to the neck and was treated in hospital before being taken to an ICE facility in another state, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Bodycam footage of the incident from ICE agents has not been made public.
Police have released dramatic bodycam footage showing the arrest of 28-year-old Dominican man, Oscar Belgal, moments after he was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in New York City on Thursday. A screengrab from the footage is shown above
Oscar Belgal was struck by a bullet in the Bronx just after 4pm, and video released by the New York Police Department (NYPD) shows him slumped on the ground in the aftermath. NYPD officers can then be seen lifting Belgal into a police cruiser, as shown above
US Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin told the Friday press conference that Belgal had previously ‘fled’ law enforcement in September.
Mullin said that since Belgal was allegedly in the country illegally with his son, the government also considers his child to be a ‘collateral criminal’ in the ICE operation. The boy was unharmed in the shooting, and is currently in the care of relatives.
The DHS previously said that Belgal was being detained as a ‘criminal illegal alien’ with a grand larceny conviction which led to a sentence of five years’ probation in April 2025, following a history of other arrests.
Mullin told the conference on Friday that Belgal was wanted by law enforcement and ‘knew his day was coming.’
‘He fled once before in September. He knew he was wanted. He knows officers aren’t gonna give up on him,’ Mullin said. ‘This individual is a threat to our community.’
Mullin added that ICE agents were not aware that there was a child in the car when they opened fire.
‘As a father of six, i would never endanger my kids,’ Mullin said. ‘I would die to protect my family. We weren’t aware that a child was in the car, I can tell you that.
‘But you know who was? Oscar. Oscar knew he had a child in the car and he chose to accelerate the car at a high speed and ram two vehicles are it appears to be going towards officers.
‘So the public outcry should also be toward this criminal… the outrage should be with him endangering this five-year-old. The focus on what took place is absurd.’
A 28-year-old Dominican man shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in New York City on Thursday ‘weaponized his vehicle’ before the bullet was fired, according to the White House. Oscar Belgal is pictured sitting on the ground in the aftermath
Belgal was in a car with his five-year-old son at the time of the shooting. He survived a bullet wound to the neck and was treated in hospital before being taken to an ICE facility in another state, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the shooting an ‘outrage.’ ‘There is no justification for what we have seen today,’ he said on Thursday evening.
‘These actions are making the city less safe,’ Mamdani said. ‘We want ICE out of our city, ICE out of our schools, ICE out of our hospitals, ICE out of our streets, ICE away from our kids.’
The Democrat mayor said he had tried unsuccessfully to secure Belgal’s release in phone calls with President Donald Trump and Mullin.
Mamdani added that federal officers who surrounded the vehicle wore construction vests and masks, making it difficult to identify them as immigration officers.
Mullin hit back on Friday by criticizing New York’s ‘sanctuary’ policies, which restrict how much city agencies and police cooperate with immigration authorities, for allowing Belgal to be out on the streets instead of turning him over to federal agents.
Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement that she has been urging the Trump administration to release bodycam footage of the shooting.
‘Tonight, I spoke with President Trump and DHS Secretary Mullin about the shooting in Marble Hill,’ she said in a statement on Thursday.
‘I expressed outrage on behalf of New Yorkers and urged them to halt ICE enforcement operations in New York.
‘I also asked that any body camera footage of the shooting be released to the public so we can establish the facts and get to the truth.’
US Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin told a press conference Friday that Oscar Belgal, who survived the shooting, was ‘a threat to our community’ and had previously ‘fled’ law enforcement in September
‘New Yorkers are outraged tonight,’ Hochul said earlier on Thursday. ‘Immigrant communities are terrified. And we are demanding answers.
‘There is still much we don’t know about what happened in Marble Hill. But initial reports indicate ICE agents fired into a vehicle with a five-year-old child inside.
‘Any trained law enforcement officer knows how easily that could have ended in tragedy.
‘By the grace of God, that child appears to have escaped without physical injury. No child should ever have to experience the terror of gunfire, let alone wonder if they’ll make it home alive.
‘As a mother and grandmother, I cannot imagine how frightening those moments must have been. New Yorkers have witnessed far too many acts of violence by a rogue federal agency and untrained agents that operate with impunity.
‘Federal authorities need to provide answers, and they must do so immediately.’
The Daily Mail has contacted ICE for comment on whether they are planning to release officer body cam footage.
