Oscar Belgal, the man shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in New York City on Thursday, remains in federal custody as his attorneys say he is "living through an unimaginable nightmare."
In a statement on Sunday, The Legal Aid Society and Make the Road New York (MRNY), who are acting as counsel for Belgal, described their client’s condition while in detention.
Belgal, 28, was shot in the neck on Thursday while in the car with his 5-year-old child. ICE official Marcos Charles told reporters on Friday that Belgal had "refused lawful orders to exit his vehicle…then accelerated his vehicle, smashing into two of our government ICE vehicles, and then weaponized his vehicle and proceeded to accelerate going toward other officers." Belgal's attorneys dispute this characterization.
The incident prompted a swift divide between Democratic lawmakers and the GOP. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said that he wanted ICE officers out of the city. He added: "We know that ICE is rotten to its core. Today's shooting is only further devastating confirmation of what we have long known."
New York State Senator Julia Salazar, meanwhile, said that she was "horrified" to hear about the shooting. "A U.S. federal agency that shoots and even murders people on the street should not exist," she wrote on X.
But GOP Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told press on Friday: "We’re not putting a pause on enforcement. I'm sorry, we're not. In fact, I'm not sorry."
Newsweek reached out to the DHS and Bureau of Prisons via email for comment and is awaiting responses.
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Belgal Has ‘Bullet Lodged in His Neck’
Attorneys for Belgal shared in a statement on Saturday that he had been held in "deplorable" conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn.
The attorneys said that their client had a lack of access to food and inadequate medical care in the aftermath of the shooting.
"While he is currently in solitary confinement, a bullet remains lodged in his neck, the left side of his face is numb, and he can barely hear out of his left ear," the statement said.
"Doctors have told him he urgently needs surgery, but that the procedure was too dangerous to perform Thursday evening without a specialized surgeon present.
"Although he was instructed to return to the hospital this week, he has been left in the dark about whether that surgery will even happen. He is also suffering from a shoulder wound caused by shattered glass during the incident," the attorneys added.
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ICE Shooting Incidents
The shooting of Belgal is the latest in a series of high-profile shooting incidents involving ICE. Officers have injured at least 10 noncitizens in shootings since the beginning of the second Trump administration. During this time, there have also been six fatal shootings, including at least four U.S. citizens.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s own policy states that officers should only use deadly force when officers have a "reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent threat of death or serious injury" to the agent or another person.
Belgal’s shooting also comes in the same month that the DHS issued new guidance on October 2 in relation to vehicle stops, including prohibiting chases. This follows a number of shooting incidents during traffic stops.
In July, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s fatal shooting by an ICE agent was classified as a homicide after the DHS said he had "weaponized his vehicle," prompting the agent to fire his weapon.
In September, 28-year-old Venezuelan asylum seeker Wilber Rafael Garces Perez was shot and wounded by an ICE agent while delivering food for DoorDash in Austin, Texas. Later held at an immigration detention center, his attorney also reported that he was kept in custody with a bullet lodged near his spine.
Perez faces a criminal charge related to his actions before the shooting. These include allegations that he assaulted, resisted and impeded a federal officer.
In their statement, lawyers for Belgal said that the treatment of their client provided "further examples of the cruelty and disregard for basic human dignity that have long defined this agency." They added that they will continue to fight for Belgal's release from detention.
ICE official Marcos Charles said: "Our officers, using their training and believing that their life and the life of their partners and the general public were in danger, used their training and fired weapons."
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Rebecca Flood and James Debens