Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Sunday that New York City will investigate both the ICE shooting of a migrant and the NYPD’s handling of the fallout.
The Democratic socialist mayor, 33, made the declaration during an interview on MS Now, vowing his administration would scrutinize the 24-hour period encompassing the chaotic Bronx encounter, the police response, and the protests that followed. Mamdani said the probe would examine how a Target parking lot was deployed as a staging ground for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Mamdani has been demanding ICE exit the city entirely, and he revealed he spent two hours pressing President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on that point after agents shot Oscar Belgal, 28, in the neck. Belgal was in a moving vehicle at the time, with his 5-year-old son seated in the back. “The secretary did not think ICE did anything wrong,” Mamdani said of the exchange, which he described as ending in standoff.
The mayor’s sharpest rhetoric was reserved for the agents’ conduct. “The city is still dealing with having been terrorized by a rogue federal agency,” he seethed on MS Now. He went further in characterizing the plainclothes operation, where agents wore construction vests.
“It feels as if you’re looking at a mass shooter as opposed to seeing some purportedly representing a federal agency,” Mamdani said.
He zeroed in on the tactical choice to fire at a vehicle in motion. “What New Yorkers want to see is the end of ICE activities across our city. In New York City it is not acceptable to be firing at a moving vehicle …to be shooting at a car where there is a 5-year-old in it,” he said. “There’s a reason why the NYPD would not be shooting at a moving vehicle,” he added.
Mamdani said Belgal was “hurting” from his neck wound while his young son was left “traumatized.” The mayor refused to detain Belgal post-shooting, noting no warrant existed for his arrest. “They’re making a mockery of what law and order is supposed to be, and then they want us to justify their actions for them,” he claimed.
The mayor’s posture builds on his prior branding of ICE as “rotten to its core,” a phrase he has used as he campaigns to abolish the agency. He broadened that critique Sunday, accusing ICE of behaving more like terrorists than legitimate law enforcement and asserting its presence makes New York less safe. He cited a statistic that 70% of migrants detained by ICE lack criminal records, charging the agency with “ripping families apart” through indiscriminate enforcement.
“Trusting ICE’s word is a fool’s errand. It’s rinse and repeat,” Mamdani said. “I am demanding ICE cease operations in the city immediately.”
The confrontation stems from a violent encounter in the Bronx where ICE agents moved on Belgal, a Dominican Republic native with a documented criminal history. Authorities said Belgal had terrorized former neighbors with a machete and maintained suspected ties to the Trinitarios street gang. His record includes a 2023 grand larceny robbery conviction and an August 2025 arrest on allegations of selling fentanyl, cocaine, and heroin. Video showed him attempting to flee as agents surrounded his vehicle before the shooting occurred.
Mamdani pledged to deploy every available tool to protect the city. “We will use every tool at our disposal to keep New York safe,” he said.