Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers shot a 28-year-old Dominican national in his car Thursday afternoon in the Marble Hill neighborhood of Manhattan while his 5-year-old son sat in the back seat, authorities said. The man, Oscar Belgal, was wounded with a bullet to the neck and later taken into federal custody.
Newly released surveillance footage obtained by ABC News shows two plainclothes ICE officers approaching Belgal's parked SUV with guns drawn. The footage does not show the alleged vehicle collision that federal officials cited as justification for the shooting. According to the Department of Homeland Security, Belgal "weaponized his vehicle" when ICE agents attempted to arrest him and used their own vehicle to block him.
Senior immigration officials said Friday that the federal officers feared for their lives because they believed Belgal crashed his car into their vehicles as they tried to arrest him. However, those agents were not aware that the child was in the vehicle when they opened fire, said Marcos Charles, head of enforcement and removal operations for ICE. The child was not injured.
Body-camera footage released by the NYPD shows the moments after the shooting. Two officers are seen carrying a bloodied, handcuffed Belgal into a police car and driving him to the hospital. "Put pressure! Put pressure!" one officer says to his partner as Belgal, hit in the neck, lay prone in the back seat. Dispatchers on the radio bickered about rushing an ambulance to the scene.
Belgal was treated at a hospital and then transferred to a federal jail in Brooklyn. According to his lawyer, Harold Solis, the bullet remained in his body and Belgal was in pain and afraid. Solis said following a court hearing that Belgal was deeply concerned for his 5-year-old son, who was terrified but unharmed.
The shooting sparked protests in New York City. Several hundred demonstrators gathered late Thursday outside NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital in the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan, where Belgal had been taken. Protesters chanted slogans including "ICE OUT" and "From Palestine to Mexico, all these walls have got to go," and "We want ICE off our streets. No peace, no justice." Some protesters attempted to dismantle police barricades and engaged in shoving matches with officers. Several people were arrested, according to media reports.
Local police released surveillance camera and body-camera footage of the chaotic moments before and after the gunfire. The videos did not immediately answer questions about whether the officers were justified in opening fire.