WASHINGTON — A suspected migrant gang member attempted to ram Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents with his SUV in the Bronx on Thursday before federal officers shot him in self-defense, a senior agency official said Friday.
The agents had used their vehicles to box in 28-year-old Oscar Belgal as they moved to arrest him in Marble Hill, according to Marcos Charles, head of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division.
“He then accelerated his vehicle, smashing into two of our government ICE vehicles, and then weaponized his vehicle and proceeded to accelerate toward other officers,” Charles said.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Thursday that department Argus cameras showed Belgal behind the wheel of a gray Honda CR-V as he backed into a parking space. A plainclothes federal officer then approached the driver’s-side window with his gun drawn.
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A second plainclothes agent moved toward the vehicle’s driver-side headlight just as the SUV began moving forward and out of the camera’s view, the commissioner said.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the ICE agents were wearing body cameras, and that footage would be released as the investigation proceeds.
Belgal was wounded during the encounter and treated at a local hospital before being transferred to federal custody.
