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Federal agents shot a New York City man Thursday evening as his 5-year-old son sat beside him in the car, igniting a fresh clash over the use of deadly force in immigration enforcement. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say the officers fired in self-defense after the driver, 28-year-old Oscar Bergal, accelerated his vehicle toward them during an attempted arrest in Manhattan. Bergal was struck below the left ear, treated at a hospital, and moved into federal custody. The child was not hurt. (July 18, 2025)
Surveillance footage released by the New York Police Department captures the opening moments of the encounter. Two plainclothes federal agents run up to Bergal's vehicle, guns drawn and pointed at the driver. One agent strikes the car's window with the barrel of his pistol as Bergal pulls forward and out of the camera's line of sight. A second angle shows pedestrians scrambling out of the way on the sidewalk.
NYPD body-worn camera footage posted Friday shows the aftermath: Bergal seated on the pavement with his hands behind his back, an injury visible near his neck, while a federal agent holding a rifle stands nearby. Officers lift Bergal into a black SUV and drive him to a hospital, with one calling out "Yo put pressure. Put pressure" as the vehicle reverses down the block.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at least one federal officer fired seven rounds as Bergal began pulling away from a parking space. The city's cameras captured the start of the encounter, she noted, but not the gunfire itself.
ICE enforcement chief Marcos Charles told reporters Friday that agents had boxed in Bergal's car with their vehicles and that he then steered toward them. Charles acknowledged that the officers did not know a child was inside when they opened fire, and said they believed their own lives and the public's were at risk. The shooting, he said, was a trained response to a volatile situation.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin went further, blaming New York's political leadership for creating conditions that, in his view, made the confrontation more dangerous. New York City jails have for years declined to honor most federal immigration detainers, releasing people who finish sentences or await trial on lesser charges even when ICE wants them held. Mullin said ICE had asked local authorities to hold more than 14,000 individuals and received "silence" in response. "Why would they release these individuals back onto the streets?" he asked.
The secretary also faulted Bergal for endangering his own son, saying the driver put the child at risk by attempting to escape.
Federal officials describe Bergal as a Dominican national with a criminal record and an open deportation case. Charles said Bergal was tied to a robbery crew that used mopeds and weapons, and that he was convicted of grand larceny last year and handed a five-year probation sentence. ICE says he slipped away from officers in September when they tried to arrest him for removal.
Court records list his name as Oscar Belgal; his attorneys spell it Bergal, and federal officials have used Bengal. Bergal is also defending against narcotics-sale charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty. The Legal Aid Society, which represents him in that case, has called for a "full and transparent" investigation of the shooting and declined further comment.
Bergal's legal team moved quickly after the shooting, filing an emergency petition challenging the legality of his detention. A federal judge issued a temporary order barring the government from removing him from the United States. During a brief hearing in Manhattan federal court, attorney Paige Austin told the judge that Bergal was still in pain. "He still has a bullet in his body," Austin said.
Prosecutors said Bergal was taken from the hospital late Thursday night to a federal facility in Newark, New Jersey, and then transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
The legality of the agents' use of force will be a central question if the case advances. Under the Supreme Court's Graham v. Connor standard, officers may use deadly force when they have probable cause to believe a suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to them or to others. Whether Thursday's shooting meets that test will likely depend on the full video record — especially the footage from ICE's own body cameras.
New York's Democratic leadership responded with outrage. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul said they had pressed Mullin and President Donald Trump by phone to release Bergal, without success. Mamdani called the shooting "an outrage" and, along with Hochul, demanded immediate release of the federal body camera footage and a halt to immigration enforcement operations in the city.
Mullin rejected the criticism, defending the officers and reserving his harshest words for the city's sanctuary policies. Those policies, in place for years, have made New York a persistent target of the administration's enforcement crackdown, and Thursday's shooting has given both sides a new flashpoint.
This is not the first time the administration has cited an officer's fear for his life to justify gunfire during immigration operations. In some previous cases, evidence later undercut those claims.
In Minneapolis in January, an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Good after saying she tried to run him over with her car; multiple videos challenged that account. On July 10 in Houston, agents killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national driving his construction crew to a work site, after saying he rammed an ICE vehicle; the three men riding with him disputed the story. Last year in a Chicago suburb, agents fatally shot Silverio Villegas González, saying he had driven at officers and dragged one with his car. Body camera audio from local police captured the agent who fired later dismissing his own injuries as "nothing major."
For Bergal, the immediate question is whether he will remain in the United States while the legality of his arrest and detention is litigated. The judge's temporary order blocks deportation for now, but the government will get a chance to argue that the officers acted lawfully.
For the public, the next milestone is the possible release of the federal body camera footage. Mullin confirmed the ICE agents' cameras were activated during the encounter but offered no timeline for publication. ICE policy permits release within 72 hours when officials determine it serves the agency's interests — a window that expires this weekend. If the footage remains under wraps, critics are likely to treat the silence as proof that the official account cannot withstand independent review.
The shooting also deepens the standoff between Washington and New York over immigration. Federal authorities cast the city's sanctuary rules as a direct obstacle to enforcement; city leaders argue that aggressive federal tactics are putting civilians at risk. Thursday's encounter gave each side a fresh talking point — and left a federal court with the final word on how far immigration enforcement can go.
