Police say an ICE agent fired seven rounds at a driver. A 5-year-old boy was in the car.
A federal immigration agent fired seven rounds at a driver in New York City’s Marble Hill neighborhood Thursday afternoon with a 5-year-old boy in the vehicle, police said. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said ICE agents later took the wounded man out of the hospital.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the man, 28, was pulling into a parking space when a plain-clothes federal officer approached with a gun drawn, followed by a second officer who was also not in uniform. When the man began to pull the car forward, at least one officer fired seven rounds, hitting him below the left ear, Tisch said. The boy, believed to be the man’s son, was not hurt and is with a relative. The man was conscious and receiving treatment at a hospital. Marble Hill is a Manhattan neighborhood that borders the Bronx.
The Department of Homeland Security said ICE officers were carrying out a targeted operation to arrest a Dominican national who it said is in the country illegally. DHS said he has a grand larceny conviction, earlier arrests for assault, robbery, drug possession and weapons possession, and alleged ties to the Trinitarios gang. It said he was arrested by New York police in December 2023 and released days later, and it blamed the city’s sanctuary policies. DHS said the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations are at the scene and that the incident remains under investigation. Earlier reports citing law enforcement sources had said the person shot was not the target of the arrest.
At a late-night news conference, Mamdani said he spoke with President Donald Trump for about two hours and asked him to have the man released, without success. He said ICE then moved the man out of the hospital, and he called for the agency to be abolished, saying it operates “with impunity.” Earlier, Mamdani called the shooting “unconscionable” and said he would demand an end to ICE enforcement actions in the city.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said she spoke with Trump and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Thursday night, urged them to halt ICE enforcement operations in New York and asked that any body camera footage be released. City Council member Carmen De La Rosa, who represents the area, said she was heartbroken and enraged.
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, where the man was treated, chanting against ICE. Protesters and police shoved one another as officers set up barricades, and some demonstrators threw water bottles at officers, Fox News reported. Police made some arrests.
The shooting follows months of criticism of ICE, including the January killings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by federal immigration agents, Al Jazeera reported.
This report is based on information from Al Jazeera, Fox News and ABC7 New York.