Residents of Manhattan’s Marble Hill neighborhood were furious at federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Friday but also scared after an officer shot their neighbor who had his child in the back of his car.
Orlando Perez had parked his car on the corner of 225th St and Marble Hill Avenue on Thursday night and witnessed ICE arresting Oscar Belgal, 28, after he had been shot in the neck, apparently with an assault-style rifle.
“I thought I was going to get shot,” he said on Friday The streets, now calm after protests had broken out the night before, were noticeably quieter than normal despite golden early October sunshine under blue skies.
Perez said he did not see that the agents targeting Belgal were not wearing uniforms and he did not see them wearing identification badges or any gear showing that they belonged to ICE.
However, footage of the aftermath of the shooting shows a man in a high visibility construction-type vest, possibly with a badge on a lanyard, and carrying an assault-style rifle. Bystanders can be heard on video asking each other “Is it ICE or not?”
The car that Belgal had driven appeared to have bullet holes in it, according to Perez. The homeland security secretary, Markwayne Mullin, said in a press conference in Washington DC on Friday morning that federal officers did not know there was a child in the target’s car.
But Perez added that the car had only light tints on the windows and that ICE “had to see that the kid was inside”.
Leading New York City and state politicians and officials have condemned ICE’s action, called for an investigation and demanded violent federal immigration enforcement cease.
Zachary Miller said he heard six gun shots from his apartment on Thursday afternoon, when the shooting occurred around 4pm, just when children were streaming home from school. Federal and city law enforcement have listed prior convictions for Belgal and said he was on probation for felony offenses, with the Trump administration accusing him of having gang affiliations.
Miller said he knew Belgal from being around the neighborhood and said: “He’s a nice kid.
“I don’t see him doing something like this,” he said, referring to the accusations of gang ties and drugs and weapons crimes.
Miller has lived in the Marble Hill neighborhood – which is geographically in the Bronx, but considered part of Manhattan – where the shooting occurred for 20 years and said he had never seen such a violent encounter with law enforcement.
“I’m a little upset,” he said. “Why do this to this neighborhood?”
Carlos Martinez, 18, said that he had heard five or six gunshots while he was eating in P & P Gourmet Deli, which sits on the corner directly across from where the shooting and arrest took place.
“I thought the shots came from inside the store, so I was nervous,” he said.
Coming from a Dominican family, like Belgal, and growing up in the Bronx, he said he longer feels safe at home, despite he and all his family members being US citizens.
“Over here we are all community, but personally I am uncomfortable,” he said. “They want to target the most innocent people.”
The small three-way intersection where Belgal was shot is home to about five apartment complexes and some businesses. New York police on Friday afternoon took away street barricades but yellow crime scene tape was still visible around the scene.
Another longtime resident, Carlos Rodriguez, said he felt “soiled” by ICE’s presence in his neighborhood.
“I need to take a shower and clean off the filth that comes into my ambit of being,” he said.
He said he wished that New York’s progressive Democratic mayor, Zohran Mamdani, would be more outspoken about ICE tensions in New York.
“From my point of view, he can come out stronger and more often about this,” he said, adding that he wanted lawmakers to be more proactive against enforcement agents, especially where they are going to residents’ homes and demanding access to make checks or an arrest.
Mamdani strongly condemned ICE at a hastily arranged press conference on Thursday night, as protesters can be heard chanting in the background, and called for the agency to be abolished.
Meanwhile, several local residents said they had seen ICE officers and vehicles “camped out” in a parking lot nearby that serves a store belonging to the giant retail chain Target.
Rodriguez said he suspected the agents were looking for Belgal.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez late on Thursday criticized Target for accommodating ICE.
A hearing was expected in New York federal court on Friday afternoon in relation to a petition of habeas corpus requesting Belgal’s release from custody, after public defender lawyers representing him were unable to trace his whereabouts, Courthouse News reported.
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