The Man ICE Shot in Marble Hill Has a Pending Drug Case. The NYPD and DHS Still Disagree on What Happened.
On Thursday, Oct. 8, a federal immigration officer shot Oscar Belgal, a 28-year-old Dominican national, in his car in the Marble Hill neighborhood of Manhattan, with his 5-year-old son in the back seat, according to AP and CBS. The boy was not hurt. Belgal was hospitalized with injuries described as non-life-threatening.
Two days later, the public record holds two differing descriptions of the moments before the shot. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch cites a 2023 larceny plea and a pending drug-sale charge; DHS cites more.
- 7rounds firedby at least one federal officer, per Commissioner Tisch — AP, CBS New York
- 5years oldthe boy in the back seat, unhurt — AP, CNN
- 2023larceny pleaprobation after a robbery arrest, per Tisch — AP, CBS New York
- 2025drug-sale chargepending; he pleaded not guilty — AP
- 5arrestedat protests that night, per the NYPD — CBS New York
The shooting happened around 4 p.m. near West 225th Street and Marble Hill Avenue. Tisch said Belgal was pulling into a parking space when a plainclothes federal officer approached with a gun drawn; he began to pull forward, and at least one officer fired seven rounds, AP and CBS report. An NYPD camera recorded the lead-up but not the shooting, and the NYPD was not part of the operation.
The Department of Homeland Security calls it a “targeted enforcement operation” against a “criminal illegal alien from the Dominican Republic,” and says an officer “discharged his weapon.” AP reports DHS had not initially said what led to the shot. Later, Marcos Charles, an ICE executive associate director per CNN (ABC’s post spells his first name “Marco”), said Belgal “weaponized his vehicle” against officers. CNN reports DHS’s account is that he drove into two government vehicles and then accelerated toward other officers. The NYPD’s account has him pulling forward as an officer approached on foot; neither account has been tested in court.
New details are emerging on Thursday's incident in the Bronx where ICE shot and wounded a man now-identified as Oscar Belgal, a Dominican national. DHS official Marco Charles said Belgal "weaponized his vehicle" against ICE officers. A five-year-old boy, suspected to be…
Tisch told reporters Belgal was arrested in 2023 on a robbery charge that ended in a guilty plea to grand larceny, which CBS describes as fourth-degree larceny, with probation. NBC and CNN report the probation was for five years. A 2025 charge of selling drugs is pending, and court records show he pleaded not guilty, AP reports. DHS adds arrests for assault, robbery, drug possession and weapons possession and alleges ties to the Trinitarios gang. Its statement, as reported by FOX 35, says the NYPD arrested him on Dec. 7, 2023 and that he was released by “reckless Democrat sanctuary policies.”
The “rap sheet” in the headlines is therefore wider than the NYPD’s own account, which cites two matters. DHS’s assault, weapons and gang claims are single-sourced to DHS, as is its attribution of his 2023 release to sanctuary policy. None of the reports we reviewed says an ICE detainer was lodged for this man or that a judge’s bail decision released him, so whether city policy let him go free is a question this record does not yet answer.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) said: “There is no justification for what we have seen today,” AP reports, and Fox News reported that he said he spent two hours negotiating with President Trump and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin (R) without securing the man’s release. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) called for a halt to ICE enforcement operations in New York, the Daily Wire reports.
I am angry tonight. Because today ICE shot a New Yorker. They shot a New Yorker while his five year old child was in the car. ICE makes this city less safe. We want them out. Now.
"What happened today was an outrage." NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani blasts ICE after claiming two hours of negotiations with President Trump and Secretary Mullen to secure the release of a man shot by federal agents ended unsuccessfully. Mamdani says ICE then placed the wounded man…
Zohran Mamdani (D) — Mayor of New York City.
Kathy Hochul (D) — Governor of New York.
Markwayne Mullin (R) — DHS Secretary, per NBC News and the Daily Wire.
Jessica Tisch — NYPD Commissioner; gave the department’s account.
Marcos Charles — ICE executive associate director, per CNN; quoted on X by ABC News.
Established: a federal officer shot a man in his car with a child inside; seven rounds were fired per the NYPD; he had a 2023 larceny plea and has a pending drug case. Not established: why the shot was fired, whether the car was moving toward an officer, and whether he had a detainer. CNN reports Belgal has since been transferred to a detention center in Brooklyn and spoke to his attorneys on Friday, and that U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken ordered that he remain in the United States for the time being. The shooting questions belong to an investigation and, if charges follow, a court.
An ICE officer shot a man with a 2023 larceny plea and a pending drug case while his 5-year-old son sat in the car, and seven rounds were fired. The city and the federal government have given differing accounts, and the reports reviewed so far do not show that a detainer or a bail decision let him go free.
