The man from the Dominican Republic shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Marble Hill still has a bullet lodged in his neck, four days after the shooting, and is being held in solitary confinement at a federal prison, without access to adequate medical care, his attorneys said in a statement Sunday evening.
Oscar Belgal, 28, was told he needed to return to the hospital for surgery from a specialist. His attorneys say it isn’t clear if he will be taken to the hospital to get that care.
“A bullet remains lodged in his neck, the left side of his face is numb, and he can barely hear out of his left ear,” attorneys for the Legal Aid Society and Make the Road New York said in a joint statement.
“Rather than receiving the urgent medical attention, care and compassion he desperately needs, Mr. Belgal reports being confined to a solitary cell, where he is forced to relive the terrifying moments of being shot. He says he has not eaten a single meal since Thursday and has been told that the only water available to him comes from a bathroom sink.”
The Department of Homeland Security pointed to Secretary Markwayne Mullins’s prior statements about the ICE shooting and deferred further comment to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which did not immediately return a request for comment.
Two DAs Investigating
New details continue to emerge about the ICE shooting that rattled the Marble Hill neighborhood on a busy afternoon, drawing swift rebuke from local elected officials and sparking several days of protests.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said it’s working with Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark to investigate the shooting, and that Clark’s office is taking the lead.
“My office is working to establish facts and determine the appropriate course of action,” Clark wrote on X.
Marble Hill is technically part of Manhattan, although it’s just over the Harlem River and contiguous with The Bronx. Douglas Cohen, a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney said both offices have jurisdiction, but that The Bronx DA typically handles most crimes that occur in Marble Hill.
New Footage Released
On Friday, the NYPD released body camera footage from responding officers, and subsequently released footage from several surveillance cameras that showed the moments leading up to the shooting and its aftermath.
The newly released video shows two agents in plain clothes rushing towards Belgal’s car. Both appear to have their service weapons drawn, as one agent bashes the driver side window.
In a matter of seconds, Belgal backs his car up and then appears to try to drive away from the men. It’s not entirely clear which ICE agent fired his weapon.
Moments later a second video shows other agents running to the scene, including Brenden Cuni, a supervisory officer alleged to have been involved in a number of violent arrests. Cuni rushes down the block holding an assault rifle wearing a construction vest, seeming to arrive moments after the shooting occurred.
A bleeding Belgal is carried off by NYPD officers and put into their squad car in handcuffs, while his 5-year-old child, who was in the back seat during the shooting, looks on. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said police found seven shell casings at the scene.
Trump-Appointed Judge
Public interest attorneys Harold Solis and Paige Austin of Make the Road New York quickly filed an emergency habeas corpus petition that same night asking a federal judge to release Belgal. They appeared Friday in federal court in Lower Manhattan before Judge John Croman, who is seeking to determine if he has jurisdiction over the case.
Croman is a Trump-appointed judge who oversaw the case of the City Council staffer who was arrested by ICE despite having Temporary Protected Status. Croman denied the staffer’s release from custody,
Brandon Waterman, an attorney for the Trump administration, said that Belgal had been moved to New Jersey by the time his attorneys filed the habeas corpus petition and argued that a federal court in New Jersey, and not one New York, should oversee the case.
By Friday, Belgal was moved a second time, booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, Waterman said in court Friday.
Speaking to a crowd of reporters after the brief hearing, Solis of Make the Road said he’d been able to have a brief conversation with Belgal ahead of the hearing.
“He’s deeply concerned about his five-year-old-son. It was the first thing he asked me, whether his son is ok,” Solis said.
Belgal’s aunts and cousins came to the hearing and stood behind their attorneys but didn’t speak to the crowd of reporters gathered.
“They want you all to know that Oscar is not alone,” said Natalia Aristizábal, the Co-Executive Director at Make the Road New York.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has defended the agents’ actions, blaming Belgal for the shooting and saying that the agents didn’t know he had his son in the car.
“Oscar put his child at risk when he chose to accelerate, hit two federal vehicles, weaponize the vehicle and move at an accelerated rate towards officers that were trying to apprehend him,” he said on Fox News Friday.
At a press conference Friday, Mullin called Belgal “this thug, this gangbanger, this possible murderer,” saying he had ties to the Trinitarios gang and either “indirect or direct knowledge of the shooting” of an off duty Customs and Border Patrol officer last year.
Another Dominican man was convicted in that shooting and was recently sentenced to 15 years in prison.
DHS has stated agents targeted Belgal for arrest ahead of the shooting because of his criminal history, which includes a conviction for grand larceny in the fourth degree for a gunpoint robbery in 2023.
More recently, Belgal was charged with criminal sale of a controlled substance for a series of sales of cocaine, fentanyl and heroin to an undercover agent between March and June of 2025. The case is still pending, state court records show.
Asked about his criminal history, Solis had a quick rebuff.
“Regardless, our laws of this country ensure that a person is not treated the way Oscar was treated,” Solis said. “You’re not supposed to get shot in your car with your child sitting in the back seat, period.”
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