Following Brad Hoylman-Sigal’s condemnation, the borough presidents of Manhattan and the Bronx are now jointly calling for an independent investigation into the Marble Hill shooting and the release of footage recorded by ICE agents’ body cameras. On Friday, October 9, Hoylman-Sigal and Vanessa L. Gibson issued a statement challenging both the handling of the operation and what happened to the wounded man in the hours that followed.
“Today, the Bronx and Manhattan stand united in outrage,” the two borough presidents wrote, noting that the man’s five-year-old son was also inside the car an agent fired on. “The frustration, pain, anger and trauma caused by this incident extend far beyond one individual.”
The shooting occurred Thursday afternoon during an operation by the federal immigration agency. Oscar Belgal, 28, was shot in the neck and taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital in stable condition. According to the NYPD, at least one agent fired seven shots. The child was physically unharmed and was placed in the care of a relative.
In their new statement, Gibson and Hoylman-Sigal focused particularly on the man’s transfer after his hospitalization. “It is outrageous that, just hours after being shot, he was taken from the hospital by ICE agents and reportedly transferred to a detention facility outside New York State.”
More precise information emerged in the hours that followed. According to information presented in court on Friday, Belgal was initially transferred to New Jersey and then to the Metropolitan Detention Center, the federal jail in Brooklyn. His attorney, Paige Austin, said she was only able to speak with him on Friday afternoon, after his lawyers had been unable to locate him for nearly a day. She added that he still had a bullet in his body and was in pain.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked his deportation while reviewing his challenge to his detention. The order also restricts any further transfers to facilities within the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the District of New Jersey. It does not order his release.
The other central issue in the statement concerns whether agents can be readily identified and the weapons they carry. Gibson and Hoylman-Sigal described the impunity with which they believe ICE agents operate as “dangerous and unacceptable,” citing reports of plainclothes agents carrying military-style assault rifles. “This is an operation of fear and intimidation that undermines public safety and makes us less safe,” they wrote.
On Friday, the NYPD released footage from one of its own body cameras showing the response after the shooting. The video shows a federal agent wearing a construction safety vest and an ICE badge and carrying a rifle; NYPD officers then lift the wounded man and place him in a car to take him to the hospital. The footage documents the emergency response, but not the moment shots were fired.
Federal authorities have meanwhile provided a more detailed account than their initial statement. They allege that Belgal struck two ICE vehicles with his car and accelerated toward other agents, causing them to fear for their lives. The surveillance footage released so far shows plainclothes agents approaching the car with their guns drawn and the driver pulling away, but does not show the maneuver authorities describe as an attempt to use the vehicle against the agents.
The requested ICE footage could help clarify this part of the encounter. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin confirmed that recordings from the agents’ body cameras exist, but gave no date for their release. Federal authorities are investigating the incident; Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark also announced that her office is reviewing the shooting.
Gibson and Hoylman-Sigal are joining community organizations and other elected officials in calling for an “independent and transparent” investigation. Their statement ends with a demand directed at the federal administration: “New York is a city of immigrants, and despite Donald Trump’s best efforts, we will never stop defending our immigrant neighbors. ICE should have left New York long ago.”
