A Dominican man was shot inside his car during an ICE operation in New York. His five-year-old son was in the vehicle as protesters later gathered outside the hospital.
At about 4 p.m., federal agents moved to arrest a man near Marble Hill Avenue and West 225th Street in Marble Hill. Gunfire followed inside a vehicle carrying a five-year-old child.
The Dominican man was wounded, while the child, seated in the back, escaped physical injury. The shooting quickly became a dispute over how federal immigration officers handled the arrest.
Demonstrators first gathered at the scene, then moved to NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital in Inwood, where the injured man was being treated. Part of the crowd blocked an intersection near the medical center, according to News 12 The Bronx. Protesters carried messages demanding that ICE leave the city.
The NYPD's preliminary account says that at least one ICE agent fired seven shots during the incident.
The vehicle stayed on the road for hours. A bullet hole could be seen in the windshield, and one window was damaged, according to EFE. NYPD officers said they were not involved in the shooting and were not present when the shots were fired. City police later gave the wounded man aid, placed him in a police vehicle and drove him to NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital.
The man was conscious at the hospital, the NYPD reported. Police identified him as 28-year-old Oscar Belgal. He had been shot in the neck below his left ear, and doctors considered his condition stable and not life-threatening.
Belgal had been arrested in New York City in 2023 and 2025, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. The five-year-old boy was his son. He was physically unharmed and later transferred to a relative. Those details form part of the official account, but they do not settle why an ICE agent opened fire while a child was inside the vehicle.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he spoke by telephone with Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin about securing Belgal's release. Mamdani said the talks failed. He called the shooting outrageous and said early reports indicated that agents had surrounded the vehicle before firing. That account conflicts with the federal version.
Mamdani also said he would oppose ICE activity on the city's streets and in its schools. He extended that opposition to hospitals.
After the demonstration at the scene, several hundred people gathered outside the hospital. Some protesters tried to block departing vehicles, prompting police to put up barriers and push the crowd back from the entrance.
Congressman Adriano Espaillat said Belgal's family and the child had been deeply shaken. The New York Post estimated that about 300 people gathered at the hospital.
The Department of Homeland Security described the operation as a targeted enforcement action in the Bronx. DHS said ICE agents were trying to arrest a Dominican national with a criminal record and unlawful immigration status. The agency said the agent fired after Belgal attempted to drive away, and that ICE personnel provided immediate assistance after he was wounded.
That federal account does not establish why deadly force was considered necessary.
Reuters reported that federal immigration agents have shot at least 21 people and killed seven since Donald Trump took office. Critics say the administration's push to intensify deportations has produced more violent encounters and too little accountability. Trump has argued that many immigrants should be deported and has broadly linked them to financial fraud and violent crime.
CNN described the episode as the first shooting involving ICE agents in New York since the current immigration crackdown began under the Trump administration. Public reports have not reached a final conclusion on whether the firearm use was lawful. The circumstances remain under investigation.
