The mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, has communicated that the City Council will launch a thorough investigation into the shooting on Thursday in which agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were involved, an incident that left a man with a gunshot wound and that will be analyzed along with everything that occurred in the 24 hours before and after.
"I, the police commissioner, and the Department as a whole are going to review the entire 24-hour period: from the shooting caused by ICE to the response of the New York Police Department (NYPD) to the incident and the subsequent protests, including the use that ICE made of a private parking lot as a base of operations, to every tool we have at our disposal to protect New Yorkers," Mamdani stated in an interview with the MS NOW network.
In that television appearance, Mamdani reiterated his criticisms of ICE's deployment in the city, arguing that the prolonged presence of its agents reduces safety in New York, and explained that he conveyed this concern in a phone conversation to both U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin.
However, he lamented that, "for the president and for the secretary, none of this was a problem." "None of the criticisms or concerns that are heard from people, both in the city and across the country, represented a problem" for Trump and Mullin in the call, the mayor claimed, emphasizing that, "as far as the secretary and ICE are concerned, they see many people across the country as if they were criminals by nature."
The injured man was identified as Oscar Bergal, a 28-year-old Dominican, who was shot in the neck during what the Department of Homeland Security described as a targeted operation in the Marble Hill neighborhood. According to the New York Police Commissioner, Jessica Tisch, the agents fired at least seven shots. Bergal was taken to a hospital, while the 5-year-old boy who was traveling with him in the vehicle was physically unharmed.
For its part, the ICE has defended the operation, stating that the suspect did not obey orders to exit the car after other agents blocked his path, as explained by the head of the ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations division, Marcos Charles.
On Friday, the New York Police Department released images from the body camera of one of the officers who were collecting the scene immediately after the shooting. In them, Bergal is seen with his hands handcuffed behind his back and a gunshot wound in his neck as the officers arrive at the scene.
An ICE agent, wearing gloves, was pressing on the wound to try to contain the bleeding, while another was calling for an ambulance. Finally, instead of waiting for emergency services, the agents opted to transport Bergal themselves, holding him by his arms and legs until they placed him in a police vehicle bound for the hospital.
At the same time, the ICE has emphasized that Bergal had a criminal record in New York, including charges of robbery, grand larceny, and armed robbery with a deadly weapon. Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security, under which the ICE operates, stated that the man was in an irregular situation in the United States and had ties to the Trinitarios gang, without providing further details.
Despite the arguments regarding his immigration status, a federal judge halted his deportation on Friday. Following that judicial decision, Bergal was transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center, according to a government lawyer's statement before the court, as reported by Bloomberg agency.