WASHINGTON — A suspected migrant gang member tried to ram Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents with his SUV in the Bronx Thursday before he was shot in self-defense by the feds, a top agency official insisted Friday.
The agents had tried to use their vehicles to box in 28-year-old Oscar Belgal before arresting him in Marble Hill, according to Marcos Charles, the head of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division.
“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,” Charles narrated.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch had said Thursday that the department’s Argus cameras captured Belgal in the driver’s seat of a gray Honda CR-V that was backing into a parking spot when a plainclothes federal officer approached the driver’s side window with his gun drawn.
Another plainclothes agent approached the driver’s side headlight when the vehicle began to move forward, out of the camera’s view, the commissioner added.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin the ICE agents were wearing vest cameras and the footage will be made available as the investigation moves forward.
Belgal was wounded in the incident and was treated at a local hospital before being removed to federal custody.
