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Bronx father shot in neck by ICE agent as young son watched from car

Oct 11, 2026·Location: New York, NY

Country of origin: Dominican Republic

Bronx father shot in neck by ICE agent as young son watched from car
Photo via Gothamist

Oscar Belgal, a 28-year-old Dominican father, was shot in the neck by a plainclothes ICE agent during an attempted arrest in the Marble Hill neighborhood of the Bronx while his 5-year-old son sat in the backseat of his car. Video and surveillance footage showed armed agents approaching the moving vehicle and striking the driver's side window before firing at least seven shots; ICE alleged Belgal 'weaponized his vehicle' and rammed agents' vehicles, citing a prior conviction and a pending narcotics case he denies. The agent, identified as Supervisory Detention and Deportation Officer Brenden Cuni, has been named in prior lawsuits alleging violent and illegal arrests, including one in which a federal judge found he lied in sworn court documents. Belgal's son was unharmed but terrified and later found safe with relatives. NYPD officers helped carry the bleeding but conscious Belgal, still handcuffed, to an unmarked car before he was hospitalized and later transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he remains in solitary confinement with a bullet still lodged in his neck. His attorneys, including Harold Solis of the Legal Aid Society and Make the Road New York, say agents lacked a valid arrest warrant and filed an emergency habeas corpus petition, after which a federal judge barred his deportation or transfer. The Bronx District Attorney opened an investigation, Mayor Zohran Mamdani called for ICE to be removed from the city and an end to raids, Gov. Kathy Hochul demanded a full accounting, and protests occurred outside the hospital and in the neighborhood demanding release of body camera footage, with some clashes between police and demonstrators. DHS defended the shooting as justified.

Timeline

Oct 11, 2026—Attorneys file emergency habeas corpus petition; federal judge bars Belgal's deportation or transfer; Bronx DA opens investigation; officials and protesters demand accountability
Oct 9, 2026—Video of the shooting released and widely circulated
Oct 8, 2026—Oscar Belgal shot in the neck by an ICE agent during an attempted arrest in the Bronx while his young son was in the car
Oct 8, 2026—Belgal hospitalized, still handcuffed, then transferred to Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn and held in solitary confinement
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