NYC mayor vows probe of ICE shooting and calls agency a terrorist threat

Mayor Zohran Mamdani declared that New York City will launch a comprehensive inquiry into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent’s shooting of Dominican national Oscar Belgal, who was wounded in the neck during a chaotic Bronx confrontation while his five-year-old son sat in the back seat. The mayor condemned the incident as resembling a mass-shooter event and reiterated his call for ICE to withdraw from the city, describing the agency as more akin to a terrorist organization than law enforcement.

He highlighted Belgal’s criminal background, including a 2023 grand-larceny robbery conviction and an August 2025 arrest for alleged fentanyl, cocaine and heroin sales, as well as suspected ties to the Trinitarios street gang. Mamdani pledged that both the city administration and the NYPD will review the 24-hour period surrounding the shooting, the police response, and the handling of subsequent protests, including the use of a Target parking lot as an ICE staging area.

He stressed that 70% of ICE detainees lack criminal records and accused the bureau of tearing families apart. The mayor demanded an immediate halt to ICE operations in New York, arguing that they undermine public safety.