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ICE Shoots Man in New York; ICE Shooting Press Conference. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired October 09, 2026 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Press conference on the ICE shooting of a man here in New York. There was a five-year-old in the back seat of the car at the time.

Breaking news, Isaias just upgraded to a major hurricane. We've got the very latest track and the timing of impact along the Gulf Coast.

And then voters say they care most about the economy and the cost of living. But what did they talk about overnight in the Michigan debate?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDUL EL-SAYED (D), MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: You going after my mom?

MIKE ROGERS (R), MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: I'm not going after your mom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: I'm John Berman, with Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: An ICE shooting has sparked protests in New York. And we are standing by for Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who's expected to hold a press conference this morning about sanctuary city policies. But it comes on the heels of that shooting, where an officer shot and wounded a man while his five-year-old child was in the car.

(VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: You see that that sparked protests overnight. DHS says it was a targeted operation. New York's mayor is calling the shooting an outrage.

CNNs Brynn Gingras joins us live from the scene.

What are you learning this morning?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara So, it's a little bit quieter this morning. I mean, when the mayor and other city administrators talked last night, there were protests all across the city. And even though it is quiet, I can tell you what happened here at the corner where I'm standing is still reverberating through this neighborhood. Our colleague, Mark Morales, actually talked to someone who owns a shop just at the corner of where we are, who essentially said she heard everything go down, and she came out here trying to push people away. She didn't want little kids to see what was happening. So, you can imagine it's on a lot of people's minds still this morning.

But let me go through what exactly authorities are telling us happened. Essentially, there was a 28-year-old man from the Dominican Republic. He's been identified as Oscar Belgal. He was backing up his car into this area where I'm standing. And essentially, that's when were told ICE officials approached that car. At least one agent firing seven shots into that car while his five-year-old son was in the back seat.

We know that a bullet grazed the neck of Belgal. He was brought to the hospital. And he has since been released. He is expected to be OK.

It is still unclear this morning, though, what actually led up to the shooting. According to DHS, I do want to read a statement to you from them. They say, "ICE officers were conducting a targeted enforcement operation in the Bronx, New York, to arrest a criminal illegal alien from the Dominican Republic with a prior criminal conviction for grand larceny, multiple prior arrests for assault, robbery, possession of drugs and weapons possession." They also say "he has associations to the" gang, "the Trinitarios."

Now, listen, the NYPD has not talked about any sort of gang affiliation. Did mention in their news conference last night there were a couple of prior arrests for Belgal. But certainly there is outrage about this incident as to why this even happened.

Let's hear more from the mayor, who spoke again last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK CITY: We know that ICE is rotten to its core. Today's shooting is only further devastating confirmation of what we have long known, which is that ICE operates with impunity, that they sow chaos and terror across our country, that they have killed far more of our neighbors than they could ever have claimed to save.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: And Mamdani pointing out what you have been able to see on the video, that these agents, some of them wearing construction vests, carrying high-powered weapons essentially, saying there was no way to even discern that these were ICE officials. The governor, Kathy Hochul, saying that she wants the body camera footage of these ICE agents released at this time. So, a lot of back and forth.

Mamdani saying he went on the phone with President Trump for several hours, and the DHS secretary, to get the release of Belgal, but they did not. He is still in the custody of ICE agents to our knowledge this morning. But certainly we're going to hear more when that news conference actually happens.

Guys.

SIDNER: It is happening right now. Brynn, thank you for the update.

Let's go to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who is speaking now alongside ICE officials.

MARKWAYNE MULLIN, DHS SECRETARY: But I want to make it very clear. Sanctuary politicians, they create an environment for criminal activity to thrive, not for the American citizens to be safe. Underneath President Trump, he made it very clear, he was going to restore law and order in our cities and our towns and in our states, despite what happens with career politicians that put criminals in front of law-abiding citizens. When you have sanctuary cities and sanctuary politicians, you endanger the safety of the public. That's not a secret. That is exactly what takes place.

[09:05:00]

And just for an example, in New York alone, since January 20th of 2025 to September of this year, we have leveled 14,766 detainers for the -- for the state of New York. These -- that means individuals that are locked up, that have criminal -- extensive criminal backgrounds that the state of New York has in custody. We've asked for 14,766 detainers to be honored because these are illegals that should never be released back on the streets. Silence. Absolute silence is what we've got from New York off of those retainers. To give you a perspective, those 14,766 detainers on criminals that are currently locked up, it represents 47,750 felony charges.

So, you have to ask yourself, why would they release these individuals back onto the streets? They're illegals. They should -- they have no right to be back into the United States. They've committed a crime. We know that they're the worst of the worst. And through ICE and DHS, our men and women out there every day, we're enforcing our nation's laws. We're not picking and choosing which laws to enforce, like these sanctuary politicians. We're enforcing our nation's laws.

Why is that controversial? Why would that be controversial? We should all want law and order on our streets.

Here in a little bit, Marcos is going to lay out who this gentleman actually is. And keep in mind, just last week, two NYPD officers, the finest -- and I mean that sincerely. The president has made this very clear, NYPD officers are some of the finest officers we have out there. Just last week, one was stabbed seven times by illegals. One that we had a detainer on that New York released. Both had extensive criminal backgrounds.

Did the mayor of New York say anything about that? Did the individuals that's in the streets demanding justice for this criminal that we picked up yesterday, did anybody come out for the officer that was stabbed seven times by these criminals? Not a word was said. Not a word was said by the mayor. Not a word was said by the governor. Not a word was said by the individuals that supposedly want justice on their streets. They're absolutely silent when an NYPD officer was stabbed seven times from known criminals that was released back on the streets by New York after we put a detainer on the individual.

Their background, the individual's background, just to give you a little bit of information on who the individuals were that stabbed the NYPD officers. One was charged with reckless endangerment, reckless driving, unlawful fleeing from a police officer in a motor vehicle, possession of burglary tools, criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminal possession of a weapon involving a loaded firearm and second degree weapons charges. That's one. Once again, released back on the streets by New York.

A second individual, criminal possession of stolen property, possession of burglary tools, grand larceny and criminal possession of a weapon. Once again, we had detainers, and they were released back on the streets. That was October of 2025. A year later, that almost took the life of NYPD officers.

The outrage should be the same. If you actually want justice, you should want justice for actually everyone. It's shameful that you have a mayor that goes out there and puts criminals over law abiding citizens. That's why today, in this press conference, I'm going to let Marcos Charles come up and tell you exactly who this individual is. Then I'll return back to the mic after that.

MARCOS CHARLES, EXECUTIVE ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, ICE ENFORCEMENT AND REMOVAL OPERATIONS: Good morning.

This individual yesterday decided to not comply with lawful orders given by federal law enforcement officers, ICE officers, good men and women that are out there every day enforcing immigration laws.

They were out there looking for an individual by the name of Oscar Belgal. Mr. Belgal was a target of an HSI investigation.

[09:10:04]

Mr. Belgal is associated with a gang in New York. Mr. Belgal has evaded law enforcement before when we attempted to arrest him in September, Mr. Belgal has charges in New York for robbery, grand larceny, theft, armed with a deadly weapon conviction -- oh, excuse me, forcible theft, grand larceny fourth -- in the fourth, and property taken from person, a class e felony. And on April 5, 2025, he was sentenced to five years of probation for that. We had a detainer on him. But he's now in custody after the actions that were taken yesterday by our ICE officers.

Mr. Belgal is -- that subject of that -- of that investigation from HSI involved the shooting of a CBP officer two years ago, I believe in the Lincoln Heights area. He's known -- the gang that he runs with is known for theft, using weapons and mopeds.

His -- yesterday we attempted to arrest Mr. Belgal. In the attempt we used our vehicles to block him in. Mr. Belgal refused lawful orders to exit his vehicle. He then accelerated his vehicle, smashing into two of our government ICE vehicles and then weaponized his vehicle and proceeded to accelerate, going towards other officers. Our officers, using their training and believing that their life and the life of the partners and the general public were in danger, used their training and fired weapons.

Mr. Belgal was struck by one of the bullets or fragments superficially in the neck. He stopped his vehicle. We arrested him, rendered first aid and then took him to the hospital.

Because of Mr. Belgal's lengthy criminal history, and known fleeing, we placed him in a detention facility outside of the state of New York.

We will continue to prosecute this individual to the fullest. We will continue to put him in place and removal proceedings, and we will continue to try to remove him from this country as quickly as possible following his charges.

Thank you.

MULLIN: I want to reiterate a couple things.

One, DHS, through all our 80,000 law enforcement agencies, through HIS, ERO (ph), CBP, ICE and all of our other components, we go after the worst of the worst every single day. Every single day. Our goal is to get them off the streets. If sanctuary politicians refuse to take care of their own streets, President Trump has made it very clear, we will.

This individual is a threat to our community. As you heard, we had a detainer on him. He was on probation. The state of New York knew he was illegal and they chose to release him back into the streets and to the community.

He also was known to be affiliated with a gang that was associated with shooting a CBP officer last year. We have belief that Oscar has either indirect or direct knowledge of the shooting, and that's why he became a target. When we tried to pick him up in September, he fled. We did not pursue him. In this particular case, we had taken all the precautions to keep him from fleeing. He went ahead and fled. Because of the safety, we escalated -- or because of his escalation, we had to use force.

I want to push back on a couple things. The mayor, yesterday, did a press conference and, by the way, only took one question. I can assure you, I will take questions. And it will be more than one. I -- he said that ICE, quote, "has killed more of our neighbors than they claim to save." That's a direct quote from the mayor last night. "ICE has killed more of our neighbors than they claim to save."

[09:15:06]

Just for a record here, right now ICE has in detention 258 illegals that are wanted for murder charges just in New York alone. I'm speaking facts. The mayor speaks with political tone. His words are dangerous and incite hostility. It doesn't help. I spoke to the mayor several times last night. He was wanting us to release this individual back onto the streets. President Trump actually got involved and said that we would release him to New York's finest. If NYPD wants to take the charges and pursue the charges, we'll be happy to release him into the custody of NYPD. I shared that with the mayor. The mayor once again said we will not be detaining him. Wanted us to walk away and allow this dangerous criminal back onto the streets.

Once again, the mayor was completely silent last week when his own NYPD officer was stabbed seven times by two criminals that they had released back into the streets. You didn't see the outrage that he spoke from a podium last night from, but he wants to go after ICE for enforcing our nation's laws. He used words like "New Yorkers" by describing Oscar as a New Yorker. I'm sorry, he's from the Dominican Republic. He came to this country illegally a few years ago. And ever since he's come in, he's committed crime, crime after crime.

Our records show that he may only have been in the country for three years. Of course, he came in underneath the Biden administration. And he has three years of extensive criminal activity. You're going to call that a New Yorker? I think that's a far cry.

He said that ICE is rotten to the core. Really? The men and women at ICE each day are enforcing the laws that he refuses to enforce. We arrest thousands weekly that are criminals, going after the worst of the worst, and he turns a blind eye to it and won't even stand up for his own NYPD officers that, by the way, protect him every single day.

He said he wants to abolish ICE. Well, mayor, if you abolish ICE, who's going to take criminals off the streets of your own town? Who's going to take the murderers and thieves and the gang bangers? Who's going to take them off the street because you're not allowing NYPD officers to do it, and they want to.

And I'll say again, the president has made it very clear, NYPD are the finest out there. He loves them. He loves our men and women in law enforcement. We would love to work with New Yorkers. We would love to work with the city. We'd love to work with the state.

In fact, last night I was on the phone with the governor, and the governor said that they would help us with over 100 different criminals that are in the state illegally if we would just give them notice. And I said, well, governor, send me a list of who you're willing to help us with. What crimes are you willing to help us with? If you'll send me that list, I tell you what, we would love your assistance.

In fact, if they would just honor the detainers that we put out, you'd see less and less of ICE. If they'd work with us, we would love to, but we're going to pursue every single day to get the worst of the worst. If you entered this country illegally, if you commit a crime and you're illegal here, we are going to pursue you. We're going to hunt you down where we'll arrest you, and we will send you back. We would welcome the cooperation of the state of New York. I asked the governor for her assistance after she said that they would

assist us already with over 100 different criminal -- or crimes. When I said, help us, my words that came back to me were, well, right now we need to put a pause on enforcement. No, we're not putting a pause on enforcement. I'm sorry, we're not.

In fact, I'm not sorry. Our job is to enforce the nation's laws and go after the worst of the worst. And our men and women do a dang good job at it every single day. And we will not stop doing our job.

When the mayor uses language like he used last nigh, yet he's silent when his own officer gets stabbed -- by the way, those two individuals from the Dominican Republic too, just to make the connection, he's silent on that, but yet he throws a, as I would say in Oklahoma, a ringtail fit about this criminal, it's hypocrisy.

[09:20:04]

It's not actually truthful. It's all about show and tell. It's political theater. And he knows it. And hopefully the public knows it.

With that, I'll stop and I'll open up for questions.

Go ahead

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Secretary. Priscilla Alvarez with CNN.

Can you elaborate further on what exactly unfolded when this target enforcement operation happened? Marcos Charles discussed that there was lawful orders that were given and that his vehicle was boxed in. How did that all unfold? To the point where an agent, at least one agent, discharged seven rounds? And was the agent aware that there was a five-year-old in the vehicle at that time?

MULLIN: The details we gave out are the details as far as I can go, The -- in all these shootings, we allow the FBI And HSI to do the investigation. The investigation will come on -- will continue to move. As more details come out and we're ready to present the findings, we'll release them. But as far as the details, all we're able to give out is the details we have now.

What we were -- I will say this about the five-year-old child. As a father of six, I would never endanger my kids. My job as a father is to protect my family, and I will die doing that every day.

We weren't aware -- we wasn't aware the child was in the car, I can tell you that. But do you know who was? Oscar. Oscar knew he had a child in his car. Oscar chose to accelerate at a high rate of speed and ram two different vehicles as he was -- as appears to be going towards officers.

And so, the public outcry should be also towards this criminal, this thug, this gangbanger, this possible murderer, that that rage (ph) should be with him for endangering the five year old. But the focus on what took place is absolutely absurd. As I said before, no one's throwing a fit. The news may have covered it. I didn't see any coverage about the -- but very little. Sure didn't see any news conferences on the NYPD officer that was stabbed seven times by two Dominican Republic criminals that were in the country legally. But yet there's a lot of attention on this thug with extensive criminal history that we were serving a lawful warrant on that had already evaded us once before.

ALVAREZ: Are you concerned that many of these enforcement operations, or rather not many, but that there are, that they are ending with an agent discharging a weapon?

MULLIN: I think -- I think you -- I think your words by saying "many" is absolutely false. As I said, we arrest thousands, thousands every day. The worst of the worst. I say every day, every week. The worst of the worst. You guys don't cover all those. You cover just the ones. And this guy -- can anybody deny that he was a criminal? Can anybody say he wasn't the worst of the worst? We were anticipating that he may try to flee because he did one time already in September when we tried to serve him. We took every precaution we could possibly take, but we cannot completely predict someone's behavior.

He had a fight or flight mentality, and he chose to flee and fight. That's not a smart decision to make.

We had gave lawful orders, as Marcos had said, as we approached the car. That was information that we were able to give. He chose not to listen.

Yes. So here first.

LUKE BARR, ABC NEWS: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Luke Barr with ABC News.

Were the officers wearing body worn cameras? And will you release --

MULLIN: Yes.

BARR: And will you release the footage from --

MULLIN: As the investigation moves forward, we, as I said, we'll release the information. But, yes, there was body cameras and they were on. Yes. And then I'll go to you next.

MYLES MILLER, "BLOOMBERG NEWS": Secretary, Myles Miller of "Bloomberg News."

I wonder, you know, you see the videos from what happened. A number of the agents are in plain clothes and the vehicles are unmarked vehicles. By looking at that, was it clear -- do you -- do you believe it was clear to this subject that he was being stopped by ICE. And, you know, you talk about the nature of this investigation and it starting in September --

MULLIN: No, no, it started way before that.

MILLER: Sure. MULLIN: He fled once before in September.

MILLER: You talk about the nature of surveillance that if -- if agents are, you know, doing this work to find this individual, how would they not know that a child is in the car?

MULLIN: Well, I can't speak to that. That's the investigation. But I can say, when you're doing undercover investigation, you're definitely not in a marked car and uniformed police. State police offers that -- operates the same way. NYPD operates the same way. Every federal agency, every agency out there, be it local, state or county, operates with undercover officers. That's what we do, and we do it the best.

And so -- but I think Marcos Charles said it very clear, we identified ourselves and gave lawful orders as we approached the vehicle. So, there was no question he would have known who was approaching. Not to mention, he knew he was wanted.

[09:25:02]

He had fled once. He knew he was wanted. It wasn't like it was unexpected to him.

When you flee, especially for a criminal like him, he knows that officers aren't going to give up on him. That's for sure. So, this wasn't a surprise. I know he knew his day was coming.

Yes, ma'am.

REBECCA SANTANA, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Thank you so much. Rebecca Santana from the Associated Press.

Can you clarify any details on the shooting? Specifically, how many officers opened fire? Was it just one?

MULLIN: Once again, that investigation will still be coming. I can't give all those details. We're still investigating -- or the investigation is going on, led by FBI and HSI.

SANTANA: Got it. OK. OK.

MULLIN: Yes.

JULIA AINSLEY, NBC NEWS: Thank you. Julia Ainsley with NBC News.

I wanted to ask you about another incident that happened near New York yesterday in New Jersey. There's a video of a family where a father, who as I understand it from your DHS spokespeople, had traffic infractions. He is targeted. The family is screaming, trying to keep the father from going. The mother -- or a female passenger in the video appears, to be the mother, is also taken into custody, we understand, not because she was the target, but because she was interfering with the arrest. There are two screaming children on the sidewalk.

Time and time again you'll hear some people say, these arrests are another form of family separation. And then we also hear from DHS, these families have a choice to deport together.

But when you watch these videos, it's clear there's not a conversation happening about whether or not these parents are taking their children. I wonder if you could speak to that video, if you've seen it. And more broadly, to what's happening when we see parents who are arrested by children are protesting them. Are there plans for where these children are going? And are parents really given the choice in that moment about whether or not they could go into family detention or not?

MULLIN: I'm not familiar with the case. I've been dealing with this one. But I think you said he was wanted for trafficking.

AINSLEY: Traffic infractions.

MULLIN: Traffic infractions. OK. I haven't seen the case. And so, it's hard for me to speak on this. But I will say, when we are making an arrest, if there's someone that's interfering, then we -- in the arrest and the federal operation, then we will detain that individual if they're interfering with it. If the individual that's in the vehicle, maybe in this case, was also, may not have been the target, but was also in the country illegally, and we -- and it's called -- it's called a collateral criminal, that it may not be the target, but the person is still in the country illegally, we're not going to just release the individual. We will hold the individual and we'll give them an option to allow the kids to go with them once the scene is secured.

We didn't see the whole video. I haven't seen the video at all. But you probably didn't see the whole video. Once a scene is secure, once we settle everything down, we figure out who is who, then we'll start having communications with the individual. When it's -- when we're in the middle of the operation, it's very chaotic. You got to assume, every time we're approaching a car, that there could be criminal behavior. There's a fight or flight mentality. We see it over and over again. So, once it is secure, once everything is calm, then we'll start having the conversation, who are these kids? Are they really with the individual? Keep in mind, the Biden administration released 450,000 kids into this country that we are still looking for. We have found over 150. And there's a large portion of them that were trafficked. So, just because they say they're their kids, we want to make sure it is their kids. Once we can identify them, we will give them an option to be held together as a family unit.

We have family housing. I was just at one just recently in Alexandria, Louisiana. A very nice family housing where we keep units together. If they choose not to stay as a family, then we'll make sure that there is a secure place for the children to go to. We're not releasing them just to anybody. We'll either put them into state custody or to a known relative that is a secured area that we can follow up and not just release them to someone we don't know, because what we don't want to happen is these children to be trafficked. So, we are very cautious. Underneath President Trump's leadership, we have a very strong base on making sure that we keep children safe, unlike the Biden administration.

AINSLEY: Can I ask you a quick follow up?

Public data on arrest and detention has not been released since July 20th. When can we see that data?

MULLIN: What information are you talking about?

AINSLEY: ICE detention data.

MULLIN: Well, I have said this multiple times. What is statute, we'll release.

REPORTER: Mr. Secretary, on New York, have the agents been interviewed and are they on administrative leave given that a weapon was discharged?

MULLIN: Well, any time that a weapon is discharged in a shooting, typically we do put people on administrative leave while the investigation is going. And they will be on administrative leave until the investigation is completed.

Have they been interviewed? I don't -- I don't know. This was unfolding last night. As I said, there was a lot of moving parts. I spoke multiple times to the president, multiple times to the governor, multiple times to the mayor.

And I'm just going to circle back to this. It is shameful that we're giving this particular case so much attention when this was a thug. Absolute worst of the worst.

[09:30:00]

And this attention wasn't given even close when we had an NYPD officer that was stabbed seven times by also two thugs that should have never been back on the streets because those