DHS defends ICE officers who shot man with child in car

Mayor says agents wore masks, construction vests during shooting

The Department of Homeland Security on Friday defended the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who shot a 28-year-old man in his car in New York’s Marble Hill neighborhood on Thursday, where his five-year-old son sat in the back seat. At a news conference on Friday, Markwayne Mullin, the head of DHS, told reporters that the officers had fired their weapons while trying to arrest a man with a criminal history. “We weren’t aware the child was in the car,” Mullin said, arguing that it was Belgal — not the agents — who had placed the child in danger. Belgal, 28, is being held at a detention facility, and the legal organization representing him told the BBC that his lawyers have not yet been able to speak with him.

Marcos Charles, a top ICE official who appeared alongside Mullin, gave a more detailed account of what unfolded before the shooting. Charles said ICE agents used their vehicles to try to stop Belgal in his car, but that Belgal resisted orders to exit and instead accelerated, smashing into two ICE vehicles. Belgal then “weaponised his vehicle and proceeded to accelerate going towards other officers,” Charles said. “Our officers, using their training, and believing that their life and the life of their partners in the general public were in danger, used their training and fired weapons,” Charles added. The number of officers who fired their weapons is being investigated, Charles said.

Charles said Belgal “was struck by one of the bullets or fragments superficially in the neck.” New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who called the shooting “unconscionable and incredibly serious,” confirmed the child was unharmed.

Mamdani gave a different account of the encounter from the federal officials on Friday. He said ICE agents had surrounded Belgal’s car before opening fire and that the agents were wearing “construction vests and masks that concealed their faces.” “There is no reasonable way to identify them as ICE agents,” Mamdani added. Mamdani said he had spoken to U.S. President Donald Trump and to Mullin for two hours on Thursday but failed to negotiate Belgal’s release. He said he would ask Trump — whom Mamdani said had not yet commented publicly on the shooting — to end ICE enforcement actions in New York. Mullin has said he will not pause enforcement.

Mullin said the officers identified themselves and were wearing body-worn cameras that were turned on during the incident. Video of the shooting, including the body camera footage, has not been made public. Unverified videos on social media appear to align with Mamdani’s comments, the BBC reported. Body camera footage released by the New York Police Department on Friday shows NYPD officers arriving on the scene and attempting to help Belgal after he had been shot. One ICE officer appears to be wearing a neon construction vest and carrying a large gun in the NYPD footage. NYPD officers called for an ambulance and put Belgal in a police car to take him to a hospital; they were later seen pulling him from the vehicle and carrying him into the hospital.

The Department of Homeland Security said Belgal, 28, was from the Dominican Republic and had “a prior criminal conviction for grand larceny and multiple prior arrests for assault, robbery, possession of drugs and weapons possession.” The department alleged that Belgal was associated with the Trinitarios, described by the U.S. Justice Department as a transnational criminal group. New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said there was also a pending case against Belgal for criminal sale of a controlled substance in 2025. Belgal was arrested by New York police officers in December 2023 and released “a few days later,” according to DHS.

Mullin said the department believed Belgal “has either indirect or direct knowledge” of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer shooting, and that this was “why he became a target.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said federal officials needed to provide answers quickly about what happened. “New Yorkers have witnessed far too many acts of violence by a rogue federal agency and untrained agents that operate with impunity,” Hochul said, adding that she had spoken to Mullin and to Trump.

The Marble Hill shooting is among several high-profile incidents this year in which ICE officers have fired their weapons during enforcement operations, including one in January that caused the death of Renee Good in Minneapolis.