NYPD officers raced a wounded man to the hospital in their own patrol car after federal agents shot him during a Thursday afternoon operation in the Bronx, body-worn camera footage shows.
The video captures the chaotic aftermath on Marble Hill Avenue around 4 p.m., where officers arrived to find 28-year-old Oscar Belgal seated on the ground with a gunshot wound. One officer immediately noticed an ICE agent in a construction vest still holding a long weapon, remarking, “He’s got a gun.”
Bystanders shouted at the arriving officers, “ICE just shot somebody!” and pressed them with questions: “You got ICE shooting at people?”
The uniformed cops radioed urgently for an ambulance while ICE agents remained at the scene. When emergency medical help did not arrive quickly enough, the officers lifted Belgal into their vehicle and sped to NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital themselves.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch addressed the incident at a later press conference, confirming that at least one ICE agent had fired seven rounds during the encounter. She emphasized that the “NYPD had no involvement in the federal operation prior to the shooting.”
Belgal’s injuries were assessed as non-life-threatening following treatment at the hospital.
The footage reveals a striking scene of local police stepping in to provide emergency aid while federal agents stood by, highlighting the tense intersection of city and federal law enforcement operations in New York.
The shooting occurred as ICE conducted what appeared to be a targeted enforcement action in the Marble Hill neighborhood, a residential section of the Bronx near the Harlem River. The use of a construction vest by at least one agent suggests an attempt at low-profile approach before the situation escalated to gunfire.
The bodycam recording begins with officers already en route or just arriving, capturing the raw confusion of witnesses and the immediate tactical assessment by police confronting an armed federal operation they had not been notified about in advance.
The decision to transport Belgal in a police cruiser rather than wait for dedicated medical transport underscores the urgency officers felt about his condition, even as the exact circumstances of the shooting remained unclear from the footage alone.
Tisch’s statement drew a bright line between the NYPD and the federal action, a significant assertion of operational separation at a time when immigrant communities in New York have grown increasingly wary of enforcement activities.
The commissioner has not indicated whether the department will conduct its own investigation into the shooting or whether it is reviewing protocols for responding to unannounced federal operations in the city.