NEW YORK: New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani said that the city would investigate the Immigration and Customs Enforcement shooting that left a man wounded on Thursday.
Mamdani told MS NOW on Sunday that he and New York City Police Department officials would “review the entire 24-hour period.”
The investigation will include the ICE shooting, the police response and ensuing protests, and ICE’s use of a privately owned parking lot as a staging area, Mamdani said. It will also address what steps the city can take “to make New Yorkers safe.”
Mamdani said late Thursday he had urged president Donald Trump to halt all ICE enforcement actions in the city after spending two hours on the telephone with the president and department of homeland security secretary Markwayne Mullin in an unsuccessful effort to secure the man’s release. He said on MS NOW that he told Trump and Mullin that ICE operations were “making the city less safe.”
New York governor Kathy Hochul said she had also spoken with Trump and Mullin, urging them to halt operations and release body-camera footage.
Mullin said Sunday he would “absolutely” release the body camera footage after the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations conclude their reviews.
Oscar Belgal, a 28-year-old Dominican man, was shot during what the homeland security described as a targeted operation in the Marble Hill neighbourhood. Mullin maintained on Fox News Sunday that Belgal was accelerating the vehicle as ICE officers were approaching.
At least seven rounds were fired, hitting Belgal in the neck, according to Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. He was treated at a hospital, and the 5-year-old child in his vehicle was physically unharmed.
Marcos Charles, who leads ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, said agents used their vehicles to block Belgal on Thursday afternoon and that he refused orders to get out of his car.
The NYPD on Friday released body camera footage of the aftermath of the shooting, showing Belgal handcuffed behind his back and suffering from a gunshot wound to the neck as officers arrived. An ICE agent wearing gloves applied pressure to the wound while an officer called for an ambulance.
Rather than wait, officers carried Belgal by his arms and legs to a police vehicle to drive him to the hospital.
Charles said Belgal had a criminal record in New York that included charges of robbery, grand larceny and theft while armed with a deadly weapon. The department of homeland security said Thursday that he was in the US illegally and had ties to the Trinitarios gang, without providing further details.
A federal judge on Friday barred his deportation, and he was taken Friday afternoon to the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal jail in Brooklyn, a government lawyer told a court.