Federal Judge Bars Deportation of Oscar Belgal, Shot by ICE Agent in Marble Hill, While Habeas Petition Is Pending

Since an ICE officer shot Oscar Belgal in Marble Hill on Thursday, Oct. 8, the fight has moved from the street to the federal courthouse. On Friday, Oct. 9, U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken ordered that the 28-year-old Dominican national cannot be removed from the country without a court order while his challenge to his detention is pending.

The two-page order also bars the government from transferring him to any facility outside the Southern or Eastern Districts of New York or the District of New Jersey without prior court approval. It stays in effect until the court changes or vacates it.

It does not order his release.

What the court has and hasn't done

Attorneys from Make the Road New York filed an emergency habeas petition seeking Belgal's release. His name appears as "Bergal" in court filings and "Belgal" in police and DHS statements.

A federal judge also ordered an in-person hearing Friday afternoon and told the government to be ready to explain where Belgal was when the petition was filed and where he is now. Fox News reported that a defense request for a temporary restraining order was dismissed with prejudice at that hearing, because federal prosecutors did not challenge the no-deportation order.

Mullin said at a Friday press conference that Belgal had already been moved out of New York. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he spent two hours trying to negotiate Belgal's release on Thursday. "Those negotiations were unsuccessful," Mamdani said. "Just moments ago, ICE put the man in an unmarked vehicle and whisked him away."

DHS has not publicly said where he is being held.

The shooting

ICE officers were trying to arrest Belgal around 4 p.m. Thursday. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said an officer fired seven rounds as Belgal pulled his vehicle forward, and one struck him below the left ear. His 5-year-old son was in the back seat and was not hurt.

Marcos Charles, a senior ICE official, said officers used their vehicles to block Belgal, who he said refused orders to get out, struck two government vehicles and accelerated toward 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," Charles said.

DHS says Belgal "weaponized his vehicle." ABC News reported that newly released footage does not show that alleged act. Tisch said an NYPD surveillance camera captured part of the encounter but not the shooting itself.

NYPD body camera video released Friday shows officers tending to Belgal after the shooting. Two officers took him to the hospital in a police car.

DHS and Mullin say the agents did not know the child was in the car. Mullin said Belgal knew. "Oscar put his child at risk when he chose to accelerate, hit two federal vehicles, and also weaponize the vehicle," he said.

Criminal history and charges

DHS says Belgal has a prior grand larceny conviction and past arrests involving assault, robbery, drug possession and weapons offenses. It also alleges ties to the Trinitarios gang, which federal authorities link to the 2025 killing of a Customs and Border Protection officer.

The New York Post, citing court records, reported that Belgal is believed to have entered the U.S. illegally in 2022, was involved in an armed robbery in 2023 and allegedly sold drugs after a 2025 conviction. Those are allegations from DHS and the Post's reading of records. Belgal has not been convicted of anything connected to Thursday's events.

Charles said DHS will pursue several criminal charges. "We will continue to place him in removal proceedings," he said, "and we will continue to try to remove him from this country as quickly as possible following his charges." No specific charges have been announced.

Competing responses

Make the Road New York attorney Harold Solis argues the record is beside the point. "Regardless of whether or not someone has a criminal history, it is not lawful, it is not okay to shoot a father in the afternoon with his son in the backseat," Solis said.

Mamdani called the shooting an "outrage" and demanded Belgal's release. He said he would ask President Trump to end all ICE enforcement in the city. "School had just gotten out. The street was crowded with families and children," he said. Gov. Kathy Hochul said she and Mamdani pressed Trump and Mullin for release without success, and she called for transparency about the shooting.

DHS blames sanctuary policies. "When dangerous illegal aliens are released back onto the streets by radical sanctuary politicians, our officers are forced to make arrests at large in the community in unpredictable and dangerous environments," the department said on X.

Not everyone in the neighborhood backs the mayor. Migdalia Martinez, a Bronx mother whose 12-year-old son was killed in gang crossfire in July, told the Post she does not consider Belgal a New Yorker. She called him "trash."

Unrest

Clashes between demonstrators and police broke out outside the hospital Thursday night. The Post reported five arrests.

What comes next

The habeas petition is still pending. Oetken's order holds until he or another judge changes it, so the immediate question is where the government is holding Belgal and whether it complied with the court's venue limits. The court has not ruled on whether the detention itself is lawful, and DHS says it will push criminal charges and removal as fast as the order allows.