The man who was injured by ICE agents while trying to arrest him in the Bronx on Thursday was a Dominican national who federal officials said was in the country illegally but was released by local authorities despite immigration detainers, the New York Post reported.
Oscar Belgal, 28, was shot in the neck when plainclothes agents approached his Honda SUV parked in Marble Hill around 4 p.m. Marcos Charles, who oversees ICE’s enforcement and deportation operations, said Bergal hit two agents with his car as he tried to escape. Belgal’s 5-year-old son was in the back seat and was not injured. Bergal was treated at NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital and later transferred to the federal detention center at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Court records show Belgar was arrested in late 2023 and accused of pointing a gun at two passengers in a car on Morris Avenue. He was later released without bail, later pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of fourth-degree grand larceny and was sentenced to one month in jail and five years of probation. In August 2025, he was arrested again on suspicion of trafficking fentanyl, cocaine and heroin. The case remains pending. ICE detained a drug suspect after arresting him, but the city did not comply with the request, federal officials said.
Thursday’s encounter was the second time ICE attempted to detain Belgal. Officials said he evaded agents in September. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a news release that the FBI believes Belgar had “direct or indirect knowledge” of the July 2025 shooting death of an off-duty Customs and Border Protection officer in a Fort Washington park.
Two Dominican citizens who are in the country illegally were charged in that attack, in which one of the officers was shot in the face and arm and returned fire. ABC7 reports both men were sentenced this week in federal court.
Marin blames New York’s asylum laws. “Sanctuary politicians have created an environment that allows criminal activity to flourish rather than for the safety of American citizens,” he said.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has called for the abolition of ICE, called Bergal a “New Yorker.” He said the agents’ masks and construction vests “provide no reasonable way to identify them as ICE agents.” Gov. Kathy Hochul said residents “deserve to know exactly what’s going on.”
Marin said the agents were wearing body cameras, but the Department of Homeland Security has not yet released the footage.