Mamdani Says ICE Agents Who Shot Oscar Belgal Looked Like Mass Shooters

Another day, another person has been shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, this time in New York City’s Marble Hill neighborhood, and this time, with a 5-year-old child in the back seat of the vehicle the officer fired into.

According to CBS News, at about 4 p.m. local time on Thursday, near West 225th Street and Marble Hill Avenue, the unidentified federal agent fired seven rounds at the car, striking the 28-year-old Oscar Belgal in the neck, as confirmed by NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. 

The commissioner said video shows one plainclothes agent approaching the driver’s side window with his gun drawn, and another plainclothes officer approaching the vehicle by the driver’s side headlight. She said the video then shows the vehicle move forward out of view of the camera, which means one can bet that ICE and the Department of Homeland Security will justify the shooting by claiming he had weaponized his vehicle, just as they did regarding the fatal shooting of Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, the fatal shooting of  Johan Sebastián, and the non-fatal shooting of Marimar Martinez, whose case was dismissed after it ultimately found not to have used her vehicle to ram an ICE vehicle as the government claimed.

As for Belgal, DHS hasn’t made that specific allegation, but it has done its usual routine of immediately highlighting that he’s allegedly undocumented and claiming he’s affiliated with a gang. According to the NYPD, all he has are non-violent crimes on his record.

From CBS:

DHS, ICE’s parent agency, said in a statement that officers were conducting a targeted enforcement operation to arrest a man from the Dominican Republic who they allege was living in the United States illegally.  

DHS alleged that the man had associations to the Trinitarios gang. Tisch said he has two prior arrests. In 2023, he was arrested on a robbery charge and later pleaded guilty to fourth-degree larceny. He was also arrested in 2025 on a charge of criminal sale of a controlled substance, a case that remains pending.

Tisch also confirmed that a 5-year-old boy was in the backseat of the vehicle the agent unloaded into. Fortunately, the child was uninjured. DHS claimed the agents didn’t know he was in the backseat.

Yeah, but how hard did they look? As trigger-happy as these agents appear to be, what indication do we have that they care at all what innocent people, including small children, might become collateral damage in the wars they rage in whatever communities this administration deploys to them?

And why would an ICE agent ever be working out of uniform? How is a person they’re targeting supposed to know they’re not just being kidnapped or attacked by people claiming to be ICE?

On Sunday, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani sat down with MS NOW’s Jacob Soboroff to discuss the shooting and video footage that he says show what looks like a “mass shooter,” not a federal agent, firing at Belgal.

“What you can see in that video and the videos that have been released since, people, bystanders outside [are] unsure as to what they were even seeing because in that imagery – it feels like you’re looking at a mass shooter as opposed to seeing someone who is reportedly representing a federal agency,” Mamdani said, adding that ICE agents “view the law as a suggestion,” and that there’s “a reason why law enforcement agents are supposed to wear identifiable information and uniforms.” 

Last year, we reported that the FBI  warned that criminals are in the streets impersonating ICE agents. In July, we reported that the Oregon State Police and federal law enforcement were investigating a report that a group of men disguised themselves as federal officers, identified themselves as “ICE,” and assaulted a woman in Portland. We also reported that earlier this year, ICE agents impersonated NYPD officers in order to arrest a Columbia University student. So what are people to make of people claiming to be ICE who aren’t wearing anything that makes them readily identifiable as agents?

ICE agents are out of control; they’re concealing their identities; these shootings are happening like clockwork, and no matter how many activists, local law enforcement departments, and state and city leaders call it out, they still seem to operate with impunity. 

Where does it stop?

SEE ALSO:

Another Fatal ICE Shooting, Another ‘Weaponized Vehicle’

ICE Fatally Shoots Mexican Immigrant They Claim Weaponized His Vehicle