One person was injured after an encounter involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in New York City on Thursday.
The New York City Police Department said on social media that federal agents were involved in a shooting shortly after 4 p.m. in the Marble Hill section of the Bronx.
ICE agents opened fire on a man inside a vehicle at 2 Marble Hill Avenue, according to the New York Post.
Footage obtained by the New York Daily News showed police removing the wounded man from a silver SUV and placing him in the back of a black car, which then sped away.
The unidentified man was taken to a hospital, where police said he was conscious and receiving treatment. Law enforcement sources told the Post that his injuries were not considered life-threatening.
A five-year-old child was reportedly inside the vehicle during the shooting but was not injured.
Authorities have not disclosed what prompted the shooting.
However, several law enforcement sources familiar with the case told NBC New York that an ICE team was in the neighborhood searching for a man with a criminal record. One senior official said the individual had previously been arrested for robbery, resulting in a grand larceny conviction, and had an open drug case.
According to PIX 11, the man who was shot was not the person ICE agents were attempting to locate.
An unidentified man was shot during an encounter with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in New York City on Thursday
ICE agents reportedly fired at a man inside a vehicle at 2 Marble Hill Avenue. ICE agents are pictured in New Jersey in August
The NYPD said on social media that federal agents were involved in a shooting in the Bronx
Video from the scene showed officers pulling a man from the silver SUV and handcuffing him as armed federal agents surrounded the vehicle.
The footage also showed a man wearing a construction vest and a badge around his neck moving through the area with a semiautomatic rifle, appearing to keep bystanders away.
Images taken after the shooting showed a large police presence at the scene, with officers apparently closing off the road.
Witnesses said the neighborhood quickly descended into chaos after the sound of gunfire.
“I only heard four shots, but I thought it was a car backfiring,” one woman told ABC 7.
“I thought, ‘No, that’s definitely gunshots,’ so I ran to my window. All of a sudden, I heard cops running—not walking—down the streets, followed by more cops, then more cops and ICE agents. Everybody was running,” she said.
“I think it’s horrifying.”
A damaged SUV is seen at the scene of a shooting reportedly involving ICE officers in the Bronx on Thursday
Bullet holes could be seen in the back of the SUV
Law enforcement officers are pictured investigating the shooting Thursday evening
Another witness told the Post how he was shopping when someone alerted them to the shooting.
‘And then I came out and there was someone on the ground in handcuffs,’ he said. ‘There was a guy holding a gun up, looking around in case someone wanted to interfere. He was ICE.’
Homeland Security and the FBI are responding to the scene in addition to the NYPD.
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But some outraged residents have since flocked to the corner following the shooting, chanting ‘Murderers!’ ‘F**k ICE’ and ‘ICE out of the Bronx,’ the Daily News reports.
In one heated exchange, more than a dozen people were said to have grabbed and pinned a masked ICE agent against a wall when he got too close to the police tape lining the street.
‘Take the mask off!’ the residents screamed, according to the Daily News.
The agent was then saved by NYPD officers, who swooped in and pulled him back behind the police tape.
New York City police officers apparently closed off the road following the shooting
Homeland Security Investigations agents work at the scene of a shooting
A massive police presence was spotted at the scene of the shooting in the Bronx
It comes just days after a coalition of West Bronx and Upper Manhattan officials sent a letter urging the owners of the Shops at Marble Hill to prohibit federal immigration agents from using the plaza’s Target parking lot as a staging area for enforcement activity.
‘This is private property operated by or for Target, where our neighbors shop, work and bring their families,’ the lawmakers said in their letter on Monday, according to the Bronx Times.
‘In a borough home to hundreds of thousands of immigrants, our residents should not have to fear that their neighborhood shops are being used as a staging ground for immigration enforcement.’
The Target is located just across the street from where the shooting is said to have occurred.
Outraged residents gathered at the scene Thursday night to protest ICE’s presence in the city
It comes days after New York City lawmakers asked the owners of the Shops at Marble Hill to prohibit federal immigration agents from using the plaza’s Target parking lot
In a statement Thursday night, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she was briefed about the shooting.
‘We expect federal authorities to provide a full and transparent accounting of the circumstances surrounding this incident,’ she posted on social media.
‘New Yorkers deserve to know exactly what happened and why.’
Congressman Adirano Espaillat also said he was at the scene and speaking with police officers.
‘I am demanding all body camera footage and evidence to be preserved, a full investigation with full cooperation from the federal government and accountability,’ he said, arguing: ‘ICE is a rogue agency that must be reigned in.’
Meanwhile, the New York City Council Progressive Caucus said it was ‘outraged by the horrific news that ICE agents have shot our neighbor, a fellow New Yorker in the Bronx.’
‘This is a terrifying, violent reminder of the immediate danger that the Trump regime poses to our city and our immigrant community,’ the caucus continued.
‘We must abolish ICE and hold those fascists accountable for the terror they are inflicting. We need ICE out of our city now.’
Our News Outlet has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, for comment.
Murad Awawdeh, president and COE of New York Immigration Coalition, added that: ‘ICE’s violent tactics are a clear danger to all New Yorkers, as today’s shooting in a residential neighborhood demonstrates.
‘This incident is another reminder of the unchecked, rampant violence ICE has been spreading throughout our communities,’ he argued.
