ICE officers shot a man in New York because they believed they were in danger, official says

It wasn’t clear from the NYPD’s videos whether or how the cars collided, but Charles said the man refused orders to exit his vehicle, and then accelerated and smashed into two government vehicles as ICE officers tried to block him from driving away.

“Our officers, using their training and believing that their life and the life of the partners and the general public were in danger, used their training and fired weapons,” he said during a news conference in Washington.

New York City police and local court records identified the wounded man as Oscar Belgal. His lawyers later gave the spelling of his last name as Bergal. Federal officials spelled his last name Bengal.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin blamed the man for putting his son at risk by trying to evade officers.

The shooting was the latest violent encounter with ICE officers during President Donald Trump’s nationwide immigration crackdown. The agency has on previous occasions said its officers felt in danger when operating against immigration targets or during protests. In some instances, evidence has later emerged casting doubt on those claims.

ICE previously tried to detain Belgal, Charles says

Belgal associated with a robbery crew that used mopeds and weapons, and was convicted of grand larceny last year and sentenced to five years of probation, Charles said, adding that he evaded officers in September when ICE tried to arrest him for deportation.

Belgal has pleaded not guilty to narcotics-sale charges in an ongoing case. The Legal Aid Society, which was representing him in that case, called Friday for a “full and transparent” investigation of the shooting, but declined further comment.

Attorneys representing Belgal filed an emergency petition challenging the legality of his detention, and a judge issued an order temporarily barring the government from removing him from the U.S.

Following a brief hearing in Manhattan federal court Friday, a lawyer for Belgal said his client was scared when officers approached his car. Now in a federal lockup in Brooklyn with a bullet still in his body, he is in pain, afraid for himself and deeply concerned for his terrified 5-year-old, attorney Harold Solis said.

“You’re not supposed to get shot in your car with your child sitting in the back. Period,” the attorney said. Belgal wasn’t at the hearing, but some of his relatives attended and declined to comment afterward.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, both Democrats, said late Thursday that they had unsuccessfully pressed Mullin and Trump to release Belgal. They also urged the administration to immediately release ICE officers’ body camera footage of the shooting and to halt immigration enforcement operations in the city.

NYPD releases videos of shooting

Mullin said ICE would release ICE body camera footage from the shooting, but declined to say when. Under agency policy, bodycam video can be released within 72 hours if “determined that it is in the best interests of the agency.”

Meanwhile NYPD released body camera footage from its officers on Friday, in addition to the surveillance videos.

The bodycam video shows Belgal sitting on the pavement with his hands behind his back as federal officers attend to his injury, and one federal officer is carrying a rifle. The video also shows officers lifting Belgal, placing him in a black SUV then driving him to a nearby hospital.

“Yo put pressure. Put pressure,” an officer can be heard saying as the SUV reverses down the block.

New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Thursday that Belgal was pulling into a parking space when a federal officers in plainclothes approached with guns drawn. At least one of the officers fired seven rounds, as Belgal started to pull the car forward.

Mamdani called the shooting an “outrage.”

“There is no justification for what we have seen today,” he said late Thursday.

Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said Friday said her office is investigating the shooting and is “working to establish facts and determine the appropriate course of action.”

Mullin accused New York officials of creating an unsafe atmosphere for immigration detentions.

Under laws in place for years, the city’s jails don’t honor most immigration detention requests, meaning people awaiting trial for minor crimes, or who have finished serving jail sentences, are regularly freed even if they are being sought for deportation.

ICE has asked local officials in New York to hold onto more than 14,000 people for federal officers to detain, Mullin said.

“Silence. Absolute silence is what we have gotten back,” the secretary said. “Why would they release these individuals back onto the streets?”

ICE has justified other shootings with perceived threats to officers

Homeland Security has often justified their officers opening fire by accusing suspects of attempting to ram officers with vehicles or making other perceived threats, though evidence in other shootings has sometimes called that those claims into question.

In the Jan. 7 shooting death of Renee Good in Minneapolis, Homeland Security officials initially claimed an ICE officer opened fire in self-defense after Good attempted to run him over with her vehicle, though videos filmed from multiple angles challenged that narrative.

On July 10, ICE officers fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston as the Mexican national was driving his construction crew to a job site. DHS maintained Salgado Araujo rammed an ICE vehicle, but the three men inside his vehicle similarly disputed the narrative.

Last year in a Chicago suburb, immigration officers fatally shot Silverio Villegas González after they say the Mexican national drove at them and dragged one with his car, causing “serious injuries.” But body camera videos from local police showed the agent who shot Villegas González walking around afterward and dismissing his own injuries as “nothing major.”

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Marcelo and Peltz reported from New York. Associated Press reporters Anthony Izaguirre in New York City and Ryan Foley in Iowa City, Iowa, contributed.

Rebecca Santana, Philip Marcelo And Jennifer Peltz, The Associated Press

by The Canadian Press

ICE officers shot a man in New York because they believed they were in danger, official says

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