New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani ripped into Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Sunday for his response to last week’s shooting in the Bronx where federal immigration agents shot 28-year-old Oscar Belgal, who was in a car with his 5-year-old child.
“I think that what they have shown time and again is that they view the law as a suggestion. There is a reason why the NYPD would not be shooting a moving vehicle. There is a reason why law enforcement agents are supposed to wear identifiable information and uniforms,” the mayor told MS NOW’s Jacob Soboroff.
Belgal was driving with his son on Thursday in a busy neighborhood when plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents approached him with guns drawn, according to surveillance footage released by police. Some agents were masked, while one unmasked agent was seen in a construction vest holding a rifle.
NYPD was not on the scene at the time of the shooting, but police body camera footage shows the chaotic aftermath with Belgal lying wounded on the street. The 28-year-old’s son, who witnessed the shooting from the car’s backseat, was physically unharmed, however, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said Friday that the boy is traumatized and won’t speak.
“What you could see in that video and in the videos that have been released since is people, bystanders outside, unsure as to what they were even seeing,” Mamdani said. “Because in that imagery, it feels as if you’re almost looking at a mass shooter as opposed to seeing someone who’s purportedly representing a federal agency.”
NYPD via Associated Press
ICE has not released video of the shooting itself, though the agency and Mullin have deployed its usual narrative meant to justify the attack: that the person they shot was a criminal, that the person weaponized their vehicle against agents, and that the person put themselves and their loved ones in danger of being shot.
“We didn’t know the 5-year-old was in the vehicle. Who did know who was in the vehicle was Oscar,” Mullin told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “Now as a father of six individuals ― er, six kids I mean ― no way would I ever put my kids in danger.”
Mamdani, who gave a fiery response immediately after the shooting, said he spoke on the phone with both Mullin and President Donald Trump. The mayor said that despite voicing his concerns over ICE making the city less safe, “what struck me time and again is that for the secretary, none of this was an issue.”
“And we know that when it comes to the secretary, when it comes to ICE, they view so many people across this country innately as if being criminals just by virtue of how they look, where they live, what language that they speak,” Mamdani said. “That is not how we run New York City, that is not who we are as New Yorkers.”
Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images
Police confirmed at least one ICE agent fired seven shots, striking Belgal once in the neck. Belgal’s attorney said he remains in federal custody with the bullet still lodged in his body, and that he is in pain.
Mamdani said he has tried, so far unsuccessfully, to negotiate Belgal’s release and have the case turned over to NYPD. According to MS NOW, Trump and Mullin said they would only do this if police detained Belgal ― something the mayor does not support.
“I asked on what warrant. We do not have a warrant for Mr. Belgal in New York City,” Mamdani said. “And when I asked that question, [Mullin] started to go into the same language that he used in the press conference, language that we know they have used to describe so many across this country, which then upon any further review falls apart at the first inspection.”