United States: a man shot during an ICE intervention in New York, Mamdani denounces “a revolting incident”

A man was shot and injured Thursday by a federal immigration enforcement (ICE) agent while he was in his car with a five-year-old child sitting in the backseat, during an operation in the Bronx, New York. The events occurred in the afternoon in the Marble Hill neighborhood, near Manhattan, while agents were carrying out an operation to arrest this man designated as an “illegal Dominican national, convicted” on several occasions, a spokesperson for the Department of the Interior (DHS) reported to AFP.

“During the intervention, an ICE agent fired his firearm and the individual was injured. The officers (...) immediately came to his aid. The man is alive and was transported to a local hospital,” he continued, without specifying what led the officer to fire. During a press conference at the scene late in the evening, the city's mayor Zohran Mamdani denounced "a revolting incident".

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“A five-year-old child was sitting in the back”

“ICE agents surrounded the man’s vehicle before opening fire. They wore construction vests and masks hiding their faces. There was nothing to reasonably identify them as police officers, he said. “The end of class had just taken place. The street was crowded with families and children (...) A five-year-old child was sitting in the back. Thank God he is physically unharmed,” declared the mayor.

According to DHS, the targeted individual “is believed to be linked to the Trinitarios gang, the same gang that brutally shot and killed a Border Patrol agent last year.” “This illegal alien (...) was arrested by the New York police on December 7, 2023, but was released a few days later due to the irresponsible sanctuary policies defended by the Democrats,” the ministry further said.

New York City, a Democratic stronghold, maintains a tense relationship with the federal immigration police, with which it limits its cooperation to a maximum. This has not prevented a sharp intensification of the activity of this agency in the megacity since the return of Donald Trump to the White House in January 2025. In the evening, a few hundred opponents of the immigration police gathered peacefully on site for speeches, AFP noted.

“New York City will not stand idly by”

They then reached the area around the hospital where the victim was treated, close to the scene of the shooting. Tensions escalated with the police when some tried to prevent cars from leaving the establishment, before being moved away from the entrance by the police, who installed barriers. During his press conference, Zohran Mamdani said he tried to “negotiate” on the phone with President Trump and Interior Minister Markwayne Mullin “the release” of the injured man.

“These negotiations failed. Moments ago, ICE put the man in an unmarked vehicle and took him away in a hurry,” the elected official continued. “New York City will not stand idly by while ICE agents shoot New Yorkers. And we will not give up on this demand, defended repeatedly by so many people, myself included, which is that this agency must be abolished,” he said.

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“We expect the federal authorities to shed full light, in complete transparency, on the circumstances” of this shooting, reacted for her part the governor of the state Kathy Hochul. Responsible for implementing the mass expulsion campaign wanted by Donald Trump, ICE agents, heavily armed and most often masked, are the subject of strong criticism in the country, particularly since the shooting deaths of two American citizens in Minneapolis this year. In New York, according to a city audit published in May, 5,567 people were arrested by ICE in and around the megacity between January 20, 2025 and March 10, 2026.