Newly surfaced security footage shows Oscar Belgal, 28, gunning his gray Honda CR-V forward as ICE agents in plainclothes closed in with weapons drawn moments before one of them shot him in the neck in a Bronx neighborhood Thursday afternoon.
The video, obtained Friday, captures the chaotic seconds leading up to the gunfire around 4 p.m. In Marble Hill. Two federal agents approached the front left side of Belgal’s vehicle, with one punching and smashing the driver’s side window glass as the car lurched from its parking spot. The agents, who later described Belgal as a “criminal illegal alien” from the Dominican Republic with potential gang ties, pursued him as he fled.
The security cameras did not capture the actual shooting, which occurred out of frame on the street. Several bystanders are seen dropping to the ground as shots ring out in the footage. Belgal was struck in the neck but is expected to survive, authorities said.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch addressed the incident at a Thursday night press conference, confirming what the CCTV footage showed. “Members of the NYPD’s 50th Precinct Conditions Team were responding to an unrelated call nearby when they heard the report of shots fired, and they responded to that scene,” she told reporters. She added that when the officers arrived, “they encountered several men in various forms of attire, including some in construction-style vests, face masks and at least one carrying a long gun.”
What the video does not show proved equally significant. Belgal’s 5-year-old son was sitting in the backseat of the SUV during the entire confrontation. The Department of Homeland Security stated afterward that agents were not aware of the child’s presence at the time of the shooting. The boy was not injured.
Tisch noted the limitations of the camera angle during her briefing, saying the footage captured the car “move forward” after the two plainclothed agents approached, but that the “cameras do not capture the discharge.”
The presence of the child has drawn sharp criticism from some observers. The shooting comes amid heightened scrutiny of ICE tactics in urban areas, with several recent use-of-force incidents generating national attention and debate over federal immigration enforcement methods.
Belgal’s case joins a cluster of violent encounters involving ICE agents that have unfolded across the country in recent days. In Maine, a separate fatal shooting by ICE agents claimed the life of a Colombian national who lawmakers said was not the intended target of the warrant being served. Surveillance footage from that incident has also surfaced, showing agents surrounding a vehicle before gunfire erupted.
The Bronx shooting unfolded rapidly, with the entire encounter from approach to gunfire compressed into seconds on the security footage. The plainclothed agents gave no indication of their federal affiliation visible to bystanders before the confrontation escalated.
The NYPD’s rapid response came from officers already in the area on unrelated business. Their arrival at a scene of armed men in construction vests and face masks, at least one with a long gun, underscored the confusion that can surround such enforcement actions when agents operate out of uniform.
The Department of Homeland Security has not indicated whether disciplinary review of the shooting is underway. Belgal remains hospitalized with his injuries as the investigation continues.