New York mayor to ask Trump for ICE withdrawal after agents shoot man in car with child
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Thursday he would ask US President Donald Trump to remove federal immigration agents from the city as tensions flared over the latest shooting involving ICE.
The New York Police Department said a man had been shot around 4pm in the Marble Hill neighborhood of the Bronx during an altercation with federal agents.
Mamdani and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) later confirmed that the shooting occurred during an operation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency responsible for Trump's immigration crackdown.
Mamdani said that a five-year-old child was in the car when the altercation occurred.
A DHS spokesperson said in a statement that agents were attempting to "to arrest a criminal illegal alien from the Dominican Republic with a prior criminal conviction for grand larceny, and multiple prior arrests for assault, robbery, possession of drugs, and weapons possession".
It did not state how many officers fired their weapons or why.
"ICE officers immediately rendered aid. The individual is alive and at a local hospital," the DHS spokesperson said.
The department initially claimed that the person targeted had associations with a Dominican gang, but later issued a revised statement removing that sentence. City police identified the 28-year-old man as Oscar Belgal. Local media reported a man was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer during an operation in the Bronx borough of New York City.
"This is an unconscionable and incredibly serious situation," Democratic mayor Mamdani said on X, adding that he had called the president.
"When we speak I will demand that he ends all ICE enforcement actions in our city. I will not stand by while ICE agents terrorise our communities," he added.
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Trump, a Republican, heavily criticised Mamdani before he took office in January, but the two men have since struck a surprisingly warm relationship. Protesters and law enforcement officers clash close to the scene where a man was shot by an ICE agent.
Several hundred protesters gathered peacefully at the scene of the shooting Thursday evening to express opposition to Trump's crackdown, AFP observed.
Many people then moved to the nearby hospital where the victim was being treated.
Tensions with the police escalated when some protesters attempted to prevent cars from leaving the hospital, before being moved away from the entrance by law enforcement, who set up barriers.
"This incident is another reminder of the unchecked, rampant violence ICE has been spreading throughout our communities," said Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition.
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"We demand an immediate investigation into the shooting, the release of the body camera footage, and accountability for any ICE agents who used excessive force."
ICE has been involved in several high-profile shootings this year, including the killing of two US citizens in Minneapolis, which sparked angry protests.
New York, a Democratic stronghold, is one of several US cities that bars its police force from assisting with federal immigration enforcement.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)