New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani spent two hours on the phone Thursday night with President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, trying to get the man ICE shot in the neck in Marble Hill released from federal custody. It did not work.
Oscar Belgal, 28, was shot in the neck Thursday afternoon when ICE agents tried to arrest him on Marble Hill Avenue. At least one agent fired seven rounds into the car. Belgal’s 5-year-old son was in the back seat. The boy was not hurt.
The feds and City Hall are telling two different stories. ICE’s Marcos Charles said Belgal smashed into two government vehicles and drove at officers, who fired to protect themselves. Mamdani said the agents wore construction vests and masks with no way to identify them as ICE, on a block full of kids just out of school.
The NYPD released body camera footage Friday showing its officers rushing Belgal to the hospital in their own squad car. The officers arrived after the shooting and were not involved, the NYPD said. The ICE agents’ own body camera footage has not been made public.
On the record: Belgal pleaded guilty to fourth-degree grand larceny after a 2023 robbery arrest and got five years of probation last April. A 2025 drug-selling charge is still pending. The feds also allege Trinitarios gang ties, which the NYPD has not verified.
“For the past two hours, I’ve been on the phone with President Trump and Secretary Mullin negotiating the release of the man ICE agents shot. Those negotiations were unsuccessful.”
Zohran Mamdani
“He wanted us to walk away and allow this dangerous criminal back on to the streets.”
Markwayne Mullin, on Mamdani’s request
Protesters filled the Bronx again on Friday. A judge temporarily blocked Belgal’s deportation, and AOC is calling for a full independent investigation. The shooting is under investigation by the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations, and Belgal is in a federal facility in New Jersey.
The video everybody is waiting on is the ICE body camera footage. Mullin said it will be released eventually.
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