U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says an ICE officer discharged a weapon during an arrest in Manhattan on Thursday, injuring a man who was being treated in hospital.
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A federal immigration agent shot and wounded a Dominican man during an ICE arrest in New York City on Thursday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in describing what it called a “targeted enforcement operation.”
In its statement, DHS said that “during the incident, an ICE officer discharged his weapon,” and that the man was injured. The agency said the man survived and was being treated at a hospital, but it did not describe what led to the shooting.
DHS described the man as a “criminal illegal alien” with a prior grand larceny conviction and a history of other arrests. The agency said New York police arrested him in December 2023, but he was later released.
The incident occurred in Marble Hill, a section of Manhattan that is attached to the Bronx. A nearby restaurant employee, Pedro Almaraz, said he heard about three or four gunshots and saw a man on the ground surrounded by several officers wearing face masks and vests marked with Department of Homeland Security branding.
Almaraz said witnesses were screaming. Videos and photos posted by bystanders on social media showed a man sitting on the ground with his hands behind his back, and another video showed New York City police officers picking up an apparently injured man and carrying him into a police vehicle. The accounts also described a damaged car with small holes in two of its windows blocking the roadway.
Several local officials and protesters condemned the shooting and called for an end to federal immigration enforcement actions in the city. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the situation “unconscionable and incredibly serious,” and said he aimed to tell President Donald Trump to end all federal immigration enforcement actions in New York City.
City Council Member Carmen De La Rosa said, “We are heartbroken and enraged.” Protesters at the scene chanted, “ICE off our streets now!” The politicians and protesters planned to march to the hospital where the injured man was being treated.
DHS said its officers “are forced to make arrests at large in the community in unpredictable and dangerous environments” when “dangerous illegal aliens” get released, and it blamed “reckless sanctuary policies” in Democrat-led areas.
New York police arrested the man in December 2023, and DHS noted that ICE agents have fired their guns during more than a dozen vehicle stops since last year, killing at least four people and wounding others. In late September, ICE ordered its officers not to engage in high-speed car chases and to make vehicle stops only if they have completed specific training.
In a separate statement, Gov. Kathy Hochul said New Yorkers were outraged and immigrant communities were terrified, and she said the state wanted answers. Hochul also said New Yorkers have witnessed “far too many acts of violence” by “a rogue federal agency and untrained agents that operate with impunity.”
Neighborhood resident Alfred Silva, 38, called for federal officers to more clearly identify themselves, saying one person was wearing a construction safety vest and carrying a rifle. He said: “We need to have better transparency to understand who we’re dealing with, because anybody in the street can just put on a vest and pull out a gun and claim to be ICE,” adding, “I feel like regardless if you’re left or right, we should understand that this shouldn’t be happening.”
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