Federal judge halts Oscar Belgal’s deportation as Bronx prosecutors examine the agents who shot him

Neighbors offered competing accounts of Oscar Belgal to the New York Post as a federal judge blocked his deportation and the Bronx DA opened an investigation.

Two accounts of Oscar Belgal are circulating, and which one prevails depends entirely on who tells it.

The New York Post spoke with former neighbors at the Washington Heights building where the 28-year-old lived until roughly a year ago. One, a Dominican man who withheld his name citing safety concerns, alleged Belgal pulled a machete during a fight outside the building and described him as a menace.

A barber nearby told the outlet he was relieved by the arrest. Others were less certain. One longtime resident said she had never heard anything of the kind about him.

Those allegations remain unverified, and they sit alongside a set of facts drawing considerably more institutional attention.

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A single ICE agent fired seven shots into Belgal’s vehicle Thursday afternoon in Marble Hill while his 5-year-old son sat in the backseat. The child was physically unharmed. Belgal was struck in the neck below his left ear, and his attorneys said in court Friday that a bullet remained lodged in his body more than 24 hours later. He also has a 1-year-old son.

ICE’s account holds that agents boxed in his car, that he refused orders to exit and then accelerated into two vehicles before driving toward other officers. The CCTV footage the Post obtained did not capture that collision. A witness told ABC7 that Belgal drove off because he was frightened.

The response has been swift on multiple fronts. A federal judge barred his deportation Friday. The Bronx district attorney opened an investigation into the agents’ conduct. Attorneys filed a habeas petition after ICE moved him from a Manhattan hospital to New Jersey and then to a Brooklyn federal facility, a transfer his lawyers said left them unable to locate him.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned the shooting directly, saying no explanation exists for firing that many rounds into a car containing a 5-year-old. Gov. Kathy Hochul also criticized the operation.

Belgal’s record includes a prior conviction and an open 2025 drug case in which he has pleaded not guilty. Neither charge was bail-eligible, and an ICE detainer went unhonored under state sanctuary law.

Protesters have gathered since, with five arrested outside the hospital and hundreds later rallying at Foley Square.