A federal judge on Friday blocked the government from deporting Oscar Belgal, the man an ICE agent shot in the neck in Upper Manhattan on Thursday while his 5-year-old son sat in the back seat. The same day, Homeland Security officials gave their first full account of the shooting, and said the agents didn’t know the boy was in the car.
New video released by the NYPD shows the encounter took seconds. It doesn’t show the shots themselves.
What does DHS say happened in the Marble Hill shooting?
Marcos Charles, who runs ICE’s enforcement and removal operations, said Belgal refused orders to get out of his car, then accelerated and smashed into two government vehicles as officers tried to box him in. “Our officers, using their training and believing that their life and the life of the partners and the general public were in danger, used their training and fired weapons,” he said at a Washington news conference, the AP reported. He called the neck wound “superficial.” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin blamed Belgal for putting his son at risk.
Mullin also said President Trump had offered to hand Belgal over to the NYPD if the city wanted to pursue charges. Mullin told NBC News he’s “not sorry” about continuing enforcement in New York.
What does the video show?
NYPD security camera video shows two officers in civilian clothes running up to a parked car with guns drawn. One bangs his gun barrel against the window, and the driver pulls away out of the camera’s view. A second angle shows people diving for cover. Only seconds pass before the car stops against a concrete barrier with bullet holes in the windshield and a rear window. NYPD body camera footage shows officers rushing Belgal to the hospital in a police SUV, Gothamist reported. ICE agents also wore body cameras, but DHS hasn’t released that footage.
Why did a judge block Belgal’s deportation?
Lawyers from Make the Road New York filed a petition challenging his detention. U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken ruled he can’t be deported without a court order while that petition is pending, and barred ICE from moving him outside New York or New Jersey without permission, Fox News reported. Federal prosecutors didn’t challenge the order.
Belgal is being held at the federal jail in Brooklyn. “He remains in pain. He told us he still has a bullet in his body,” lawyer Paige Austin said. His son is with his mother. “You’re not supposed to get shot in your car with your child sitting in the back. Period,” lawyer Harold Solis said, per ABC7.
The BeezLoop Take
DHS’s account isn’t crazy on its face. A driver who rams government vehicles can be a real threat. But the agency’s own story raises the key question: officers fired seven rounds into a car without knowing a child was in it, on a street full of kids leaving school. That’s exactly the kind of judgment an independent investigation exists to examine.
The fastest way to settle it is the body camera video ICE already has. If it backs up the agents, release it. Holding it back while releasing a criminal record and calling a neck wound “superficial” looks like an agency managing a story, not answering for a shooting.
The open question: will anyone outside DHS be allowed to review the agents’ footage?
Earlier: an ICE agent fired seven shots into a car in Upper Manhattan with a 5-year-old in the back seat, and a Trump-appointed judge says ICE agents lied under oath.
Sources: Associated Press via Times Union · ABC7 New York · Fox News · Gothamist · amNY · NBC News (video)
