Marble Hill ICE shooting sparks protests and renewed calls to protect immigrant neighbors

After 28-year-old Oscar Belgal was shot in the neck by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Oct. 8 in Marble Hill with a 5-year-old believed to be his son in the car, outrage reverberated through the community.

Residents and businesses said fears of immigration enforcement are heightened in the area, where elected officials previously questioned the agency’s presence at a nearby shopping center, and where ELLIS Preparatory Academy student Dylan Lopez Contreras was the first New York City public school student detained by ICE last year. With Belgal reportedly detained in Brooklyn, community members have remained steadfast in their advocacy, joining citywide protests and ensuring neighbors know their rights if they encounter ICE agents.

Hundreds of New Yorkers took to the streets the night of the incident, gathering where Belgal was shot with anti-ICE signs in hand and chants echoing down the block. Elected officials demanded ICE cease operations in the Bronx and throughout the city. Protesters later marched to Allen Hospital where Belgal was being treated, and tensions rose between them and police, resulting in five arrests, according to authorities. Police said demonstrators pushed over barriers into the roadway, obstructed traffic and refused verbal commands to disperse.

Public outcry continued into the next day, when thousands of protesters gathered at Foley Square in Lower Manhattan. Local elected officials and volunteers also canvassed in Marble Hill Oct. 10, distributing “Know Your Rights” materials to residents and businesses.

Belgal in detention

Belgal is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, according to a joint Oct. 11 statement issued by nonprofit Make the Road New York and law firm Legal Aid Society, which is representing Belgal. Belgal was initially taken to a federal facility outside of New York City after he was treated at Allen Hospital, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Oct. 9, which Make the Road New York later said was a federal facility in New Jersey.

A U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement to The Press Belgal, who is from the Dominican Republic, was detained during a targeted enforcement operation, and was undocumented. The spokesperson stated Belgal has prior arrests for assault, robbery, and possession of drugs and weapons, and said he has “associations to the Trinitarios gang.”

In Brooklyn, Belgal still has a bullet lodged in his neck, according to the Legal Aid Society and Make the Road New York. Doctors said surgery is urgently needed, but was too dangerous to do Thursday without a specialized doctor present, the organizations said. The left side of his face is numb and he doesn’t have full hearing in his left ear, according to the organizations, which stated he is supposed to return to the hospital this week.

The organizations also said Belgal is in solitary confinement, and hasn’t eaten a meal since Oct. 8. He also suffered a shoulder wound caused by shattering glass during the incident, according to the organizations.

The Metropolitan Detention Center declined to comment.

The Legal Aid Society also said in an Oct. 9 statement it was calling for a “full and transparent” investigation into Belgal’s shooting by a prosecutor.

A spokesperson for the mayor’s office told The Press Oct. 9 the mayor and the NYPD will review all events within the day of the incident — including ICE’s shooting, the NYPD’s response, the protest and the staging of ICE operations in privately-owned parking lots.

Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark released a statement following the shooting that said her office is “working to establish facts and determine the appropriate course of action.”

ICE presence in neighborhood

Local elected officials suspected ICE was staging in the West 225th Street Target parking lot before the shooting. On Oct. 5, eight electeds sent a letter in response to what they said were reports and increased sightings of ICE agents in the lot.

Target is part of the Shops at Marble Hill and its lot is used by shoppers at surrounding stores as well.

In April, about 30 local members of Jewish advocacy groups rallied outside of the Target, demanding it end its alleged cooperation with ICE. Organizations sent a letter to Target after, signed by “Concerned Residents of the Bronx, upper Manhattan and Westchester,” The Press reported. Electeds said in the Oct. 5 letter it had more than 50 signatures.

A Target spokesperson told The Press it has no cooperative agreements with ICE or any other immigration enforcement agency, and was not aware of law enforcement operations at the West 225th Street location.

Neighbors react

Romeulo “Romy” Moreira, a cab driver in the area for two decades, said he’s seen several local incidents in the last year and a half involving ICE,  including at Target and NYCHA Marble Hill Houses.

Moreira was nearby the day of the shooting, he said, and heard the gunshots. He questioned the federal government’s response, and said Belgal having prior arrests isn’t a legitimate reason to shoot him.

Aladdin Elhanafy, who has run a halal cart on West 225th Street for 25 years, said even people who have citizenship documents are scared. Business has worsened, he said, as fear stops people from going out as much, or prompts them to leave the city completely.

Around the corner from the scene of the shooting, Fuad Ahmend works at Arturo’s Pizza and Pasta, and said Fridays are typically some of their busiest days, but following the shooting, the shop was eerily quiet.

“It’s horrific what they’ve done to the neighborhood,” Ahmed said, referring to ICE agents.

Workers at neighboring storefronts, he said, are also on edge, with some closing up early.

Many residents, however, are prepared to stand their ground in protecting their neighbors, Ahmed said.

“They don’t play games, if you mess with their people, their loved ones, they’ll come at you,” he said.

Daniel Duke, a Marble Hill resident of roughly a decade, echoed that sentiment.

“I’m from Minneapolis originally, and we saw what they did there,” he said, referencing a large-scale public response to the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old U.S. citizen Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent. “You know, I think if it comes to that, I’m willing to be part of whatever kind of resistance organization.”

Duke said he was home at the time of the shooting, and heard gunshots in rapid succession — a sound he said was atypical of what he generally considers a safe neighborhood. 

Among the larger concerns neighbors shared, Duke said, was that the shooting took place on a weekday afternoon just blocks away from several schools. At the time Belgal was shot on Marble Hill Avenue, several residents told The Press, students were walking down the strip after dismissal.

“The number of schools in this neighborhood too is crazy, almost always there’s like dozens, even hundreds, of school kids on the street at any given time, especially between like 2 and 4:30 or so,” he said. “I just can’t believe that they would do that many shots like on the street, like it’s just insane to me.”

The afternoon following the shooting, Riverdale resident and mother Shannon Murtha was among those who walked neighboring streets with a stack of informational handouts, stopping students and parents streaming from schools to share “Know Your Rights” resources.

“We just want to keep the kids safe,” she said.

Murtha’s eyes glossed over with tears as she described Bengal’s shooting and the circumstances around. She said she found the incident sickening, particularly as the mother of a 5-year-old herself.