School had just let out in Marble Hill, a small enclave of Manhattan bordering the Bronx.It was a little after 4 p.m.
on Oct.8 when Oscar Belgal, 28, picked up his five-year-old son and began backing his Honda CR-V into a parking spot on a crowded street.A police camera caught what happened next.
Two men dressed in plain clothes approached Belgal’s SUV with their guns drawn – one to the driver’s side, the other to the front.They were ICE officers.
More agents were part of the operation, and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani later noted that officers surrounding the vehicle wore construction vests and masks.Belgal responded by pulling the SUV forward out of the space.As he did, one officer punched and broke the driver’s window, but Belgal managed to drive off and out of the camera’s view.FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS DEPORTATION OF DOMINICAN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SHOT BY ICE DURING NYC ARREST ATTEMPTThe ICE officers caught up with Belgal about a block away.
According to ICE officials, Belgal refused orders to exit the vehicle, turned his SUV into a weapon, and rammed two government cars.Belgal's defense attorney disputes this account, maintaining that Belgal fled out of panic to protect his child from unidentified, armed men.
Initial NYPD street camera footage did not capture the moment of the shooting, but investigators later determined that a bullet went through Belgal's windshield.At least one officer fired seven rounds, striking Belgal in the neck below his left ear.
His son, sitting in the back seat, was not physically hurt.The FBI, Homeland Security investigators, and the Bronx District Attorney’s office have all launched inquiries into the shooting.MAMDANI CALLS ICE A 'ROGUE' AGENCY AFTER NYC SHOOTING, CLAIMS AGENTS VIEW LAW AS 'MERELY A SUGGESTION'But there is a second story here, one that reveals where we are as a nation.Within hours of the shooting, Oscar Belgal was no longer a man, an individual.He became a symbol.
And the people who made him into a...