A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot a man in New York City on Thursday afternoon.
Early reports indicated that agents had surrounded the man and a five-year-old child in his car in a residential area before firing multiple rounds, the city’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, said in a statement on Thursday evening. The child was physically unharmed, he said.
The man, who has not been identified, was conscious after the shooting and taken to a hospital, the NYPD said in a brief statement. The shooting took place at roughly 4pm in the Marble Hill neighborhood of the Bronx.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement on social media that ICE officers were conducting an operation targeting an undocumented man from the Dominican Republic. The statement did not explain what led to the shooting, saying: “During the incident, an ICE officer discharged his weapon and the criminal illegal alien was injured.”
The extent of the man’s injuries was unknown. The department’s statement alleged that the man had “associations” with a gang and prior criminal convictions, but DHS did not name the man or provide evidence of his background. The department has previously faced backlash for falsely accusing immigrants of being gang members after they were shot by agents.
DHS spokespeople did not immediately respond to questions about what led to the shooting, the extent of the man’s injuries, or the reports that a five-year-old was in the car during the shooting.
“This is an unconscionable and incredibly serious situation,” Mamdani wrote in an X post. “I have called the President; when we speak, I will demand that he ends all ICE enforcement actions in our city.”
Cellphone video published by the New York Times appeared to show the immediate aftermath of the shooting, with an agent in a yellow vest holding what appeared to be an assault rifle while talking on the phone. The newspaper said other witness video appeared to show several agents in the middle of the street in the aftermath, with one armed and another restraining a man on the ground.
The City Reporter, a local news outlet, said video showed chaos after the shooting, with a crowd gathered and NYPD officers appearing to carry a man into the back of a vehicle. Videos also showed bullet holes in the windshield of an SUV, NY1 reported.
Mamdani expressed outrage in his post, saying: “I will not stand by while ICE agents terrorize our communities. Our thoughts are with the injured New Yorker and his family tonight. We are praying for his recovery. Get ICE out of our neighborhoods. Get ICE out of our hospitals. Get ICE off our streets. Get ICE away from our children.”
The mayor ended his statement with: “Abolish ICE.”
Protesters began to gather in the area soon after the shooting, with some demonstrators holding signs saying, “Jail all killer ICE agents” and “Leave our neighbors alone”. NYPD also set up barricades at a nearby hospital where the man who was shot was reportedly receiving treatment.
Activists and local elected officials gathered for an emergency press conference in the area where speakers expressed outrage about the shooting and decried ICE’s ongoing presence in the neighborhood.
“ICE, get the fuck out of our neighborhood,” shouted Vanessa Gibson, Bronx borough president. “I’m angry that we have to be here … We are a working-class community. We don’t deserve this type of treatment from the White House.” She encouraged the crowd to get involved in opposing ICE, saying: “There are more of us than there are of them. I want this to be a moment that we turn into a movement.”
DHS has faced growing backlash over immigration officers’ use of deadly force in the field over the last year. Last month, an immigration officer shot Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, while he was in his car during a traffic stop in Texas. Federal prosecutors then charged the man with assault, alleging he had struck an officer with his side mirror while trying to drive away.
The Trump administration has repeatedly accused immigrants and protesters of “weaponizing” their vehicles, alleging that agents fired their weapons in response to “vehicular attacks”, but a Guardian analysis in July found most of those claims touted by federal officials have fallen apart under scrutiny.
Since Trump returned to office last year, US immigration officers have shot at least two dozen people, according to one analysis, including three US citizens who were killed.