ICE Agent Shoots Man in Marble Hill

Stephen Nessen (0:10)

It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Stephen Nesson, the Transit Reporter in the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom filling in for Brian today. I've been a guest on the show more times than I can count, but it's my first time in the host chair. You could say, longtime listener, first time host.

Coming up later in the show for our election series, 30 Issues in 30 Days, we're going to talk about how transportation will be affected by whomever wins New York's Governors Race and control of Congress, especially the plan to redo Penn Station. Plus, we'll hear why students are staging mass protests in France this week. Maybe some of you with connections will call in to help us report the story. Later in the show, the historian and writer, Walter Isaacson will be here. He's well known for his biographies on the titans of tech, but in a new op-ed, he writes about the 19th century mathematician named Ada Lovelace. He'll connect her groundbreaking work to AI and what's going on today.

We'll wrap up today's show with an interesting thought experiment. Should we be closing little used subway stations? It's not unprecedented, but usually people want to add new stations, not take them away.

I'll train riders, especially this one's for you.

But first, we're following up on a top story. Yesterday afternoon, an ICE officer shot a man in the neck in the Marble Hill section in the Bronx. It was around 4 p.m. in a busy area with stores and people bustling around in the after school hours. There was also a five-year-old child in the car with the man who was shot. The child is unharmed, and the man who was shot is in stable condition, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. But questions are swirling as to why the federal officers turn to violence, especially with a child present. Here with me now to explain what we know so far is WNYC and Gothamist reporter Arya Sundaram who was on the scene there yesterday. Hi Arya, thanks for coming on the show.

Arya Sundaram (2:01)

Thanks for having me.

Stephen Nessen (2:03)

Arya, set the scene for us. I described a little bit about what happened, but can you say more? This shooting happened yesterday afternoon in a busy area. What do we know about the person who was shot and how it went down?

Arya Sundaram (2:15)

Right. The man was 28-year-old Oscar Belgal. He's an immigrant from the Dominican Republic. He's been in the US for about three years according to DHS.

Around 4 PM, ICE agents were conducting a targeted operation, trying to go after Belgal because of his criminal history and other ties that they were concerned about. He was driving a gray Honda CRV at the time when ICE agents boxed his car in, according to DHS and shortly after, according to video footage described by the NYPD, an armed plainclothes federal officer approached the car. In this part, we don't have on camera just yet. So shortly after, ICE agents opened fire, shooting seven rounds at least into his car.

DHS said that he was caught on body cam footage, but they haven't released the video yet.

Stephen Nessen (3:05)

I think one of the most striking details that's grabbing people's attention is that there was a child, a five-year-old child, believed to be the victim's son in the car at the time of the shooting. I saw reporting, we just mentioned he was physically unharmed, but let's linger on that for a second.

What does it say about the federal agents that they are shooting at someone with a child present? Do they know there was a child in the car?

Arya Sundaram (3:26)

So DHS officials say that the ICE officers present didn't know that there was a child present, but it certainly does raise some questions about whether they had a proper recon before shooting. And I think there certainly are a number of policies in place and concerns when law enforcement officers are using force such as this to take into account who's present.

Stephen Nessen (3:53)

Are you aware, I know you've been covering ICE and a lot of the federal immigration stuff that's been happening, have there been children involved in this level of force with ICE?

Arya Sundaram (4:04)

You know, there certainly have been cases of, you know, children present when arrests are taking place. And I don't know if at this level of force, but certainly involved in fairly violent arrests that I've seen across the country.

Stephen Nessen (4:23)

Like one of the worst, do you think?

Arya Sundaram (4:26)

I mean, being involved, being in a car while a shooting is taking place is certainly, you know, one of the more concerning incidents, I think, that, you know, that I've seen.