The Dominican Republic native shot by ICE agents in The Bronx had a criminal record that included an armed robbery and later drug charges, according to court documents and law enforcement sources. Critics say New York’s bail policies and sanctuary rules allowed him to remain in the community.
Oscar Belgal, 28, is believed to have entered the United States unlawfully in 2022. Authorities say he robbed someone at gunpoint in Fordham Heights the following year, was later accused of selling fentanyl, cocaine and heroin, and may have had ties to a violent street gang.
Despite that history, Mayor Zohran Mamdani referred to Belgal as “a New Yorker” during an angry Thursday denunciation of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The description drew backlash from some Bronx residents.
“I don’t consider him a New Yorker,” said Bronx mother Migdalia Martinez, whose 12-year-old son, Jacob Freytas, was killed in July after being caught in gang-related crossfire while riding his bicycle.
“The only thing I do consider him as is trash, nothing else but trash. And I don’t consider New York, my home, as trash,” Martinez told The Post on Friday.
When asked whether Mamdani was wrong to describe Belgal as a New Yorker, Martinez replied: “The mayor is wrong in many ways — that’s definitely one.”
Martinez’s son was struck by a stray bullet in Mount Eden, an area authorities identify as Trinitarios territory. Investigators said they suspected the gang was connected to the violence.
Officials with the US Department of Homeland Security have also linked the Trinitarios to the July 2025 shooting of an off-duty Customs and Border Protection officer at Fort Washington Park. Authorities were investigating possible ties between the gang and Belgal when ICE agents approached him Thursday.
Here’s the latest on the Bronx ICE shooting:
Security video showed plainclothes ICE agents converging on Belgal’s parked vehicle in Marble Hill at about 4 p.m., guns drawn. The car then sped away and disappeared from the surveillance camera’s view.
Marcos Charles, who leads ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division, said Belgal accelerated toward the agents and “smashed” into two of them.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the agents were equipped with body-worn cameras. Federal officials had not released that footage as of Friday.
Federal sources believe Belgal entered the country in 2022 with a migrant caravan, apparently avoiding contact with Border Patrol agents.
Authorities and court records show that he was arrested by December 2023 in connection with an armed robbery allegedly committed the previous month.
According to the criminal complaint, Belgal was driving along Morris Avenue with two people in the back seat when he turned toward them, pointed a gun and demanded, “give me your jewelry or I will shoot you.”
The victims surrendered jewelry and roughly $500 in cash. Belgal was later arrested but released without bail while awaiting trial, court records show.
He pleaded guilty in April 2025 to a reduced charge of fourth-degree grand larceny. Under the agreement, he received a one-month jail sentence and five years of probation when he was sentenced in January, officials said.
Months after that conviction, Belgal was arrested again, in August 2025, on allegations that he sold dangerous drugs including fentanyl, cocaine and heroin. That case remains pending.
Because the drug charges were not eligible for bail, Belgal was released after his arrest, according to law enforcement sources. Prosecutors sought — and obtained — the strictest level of supervised release.
Federal sources said ICE issued a detention request after Belgal’s drug arrest, asking local authorities to transfer him to federal custody. That request was not honored, the sources said.
Mullin argued that New York’s sanctuary policies, which generally limit cooperation between local agencies and federal immigration authorities, kept ICE from taking Belgal into custody sooner and put the public at risk.
“Sanctuary politicians create an environment for criminal activity to thrive, not for American citizens to be safe,” he said. “When you have sanctuary cities and politicians, you endanger the safety of the public.”
Belgal was back behind bars — this time in federal custody — Friday after an ICE agent shot him in the neck during the attempted arrest where he tried to drive off in his Honda SUV with his 5-year-old son in the backseat.
Intense bodycam footage from the NYPD showed cops rushing to the scene and finding ICE agents tending to the wounded Belgal, while his terrified son screamed in the background.
Seven bullets smashed through the car’s front, side and rear windows, but Belgal survived the injury and was rushed to a hospital. His son was physically unharmed and is now in the care of family.
It was the second time ICE had attempted to arrest Belgal — the agency tried in September, but officials said he managed to flee and get away.
His shooting sparked widespread outrage from lefty New York pols and anti-ICE protesters, who swarmed NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, where cops brought Belgal in the aftermath — before he was swept away by the feds in a car.
“A New Yorker was shot by ICE agents in Marble Hill,” the mayor told reporters. “ICE agents surrounded the man’s vehicle before opening fire. They wore construction vests and masks that concealed their faces. There was no reasonable way to identify them as ICE agents.
“You are hearing from New Yorkers right now — anguish, pain, anger — at the fact that here in this city, the world’s city, immigrants have to wake up every morning and not know if they can live the lives that they should be able to live,” he fumed.
But not every New Yorker shared the mayor’s views — including one of Belgal’s Upper Manhattan neighbors, who answered with a staunch “No” when asked if she considered him a New Yorker.
“Absolutely not. That’s one of the reasons I think we should vote blue out,” former neighbor Mora Rodriguez told The Post.
“What’s going on with the legal system, the jail, letting these people go after they have a whole list of convictions. This is a criminal. Why would you let this person out?” said Rodriguez, a longtime and elderly resident of Belgal’s old Inwood building. “These judges are very radical. We gotta vote red. That’s what I can say to you.”
Belgal was released from the hospital and sent to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after a court hearing seeking his release Friday.
His name was bafflingly different across various court documents and agencies — which alternatively listed him as Belgal, Bengal or Bergal.
Mullin said Belgal was being eyed by the feds over the shooting that injured the off-duty CBP officer, claiming he was believed to have “direct or indirect knowledge” of the crime.
That shooting was carried out by two illegal immigrants from the Dominican Republic, one of whom was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Monday. Law-enforcement sources said Belgal’s name and contact was in the phone of one of the suspects in that shooting, prompting ICE to seek him out.
— Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts and Khristina Narizhnaya
