The 5-year-old boy who witnessed his father get shot in their car by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on a New York City street was left traumatized by the experience and has stopped talking, his mother told officials.
An ICE agent fired seven rounds into the silver Honda Civic, while the boy sat in the backseat, striking Oscar Belgal, 28, in the neck, about 4 p.m. Thursday on Marble Hill Ave. near W. 225th St.
Gov. Hochul said she spoke with the young boy’s mother.
“Thank God she isn’t planning a funeral for her little boy. But she told me he’s normally so outgoing and talkative. Now he won’t speak,” Hochul wrote in a statement posted to X.
Hochul said the mother is “terrified” ICE would come after her family again.
“I let her know that I’d spoken to President Trump and he confirmed that ICE would not be returning for her family,” she continued. “As a mom, all I wanted to do was give her a hug and tell her this never should have happened to her family.”
The boy’s mother, Arianna Montero, told the New York Times Friday that her child had been “traumatized” by the shooting and has not spoken since it happened.
“He’s having nightmares,” she said. “He went through something he shouldn’t have gone through.”
At a rally in Syracuse on Friday night, President Trump defended the ICE agents involved in the shooting, calling them “heroes.”
“Just yesterday our heroes of ICE apprehended a man with a criminal record a mile long who is wanted for possible murder and murder in a gang,” Trump said, although Belgal has never been arrested for murder, attempted murder, or been officially named as a suspect in a murder. “He’s a very dangerous man. And they got him. But instead of being praised, ICE was scorned by New York politicians who want to set him loose.
“And they’re surprised when they see your crime stats,” Trump said as he stumped for Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who is running against Gov. Hochul in November, vowing to “ban sanctuary cities and sanctuary states at long last.”
Belgal’s attorney, speaking to reporters after a Friday court hearing in Manhattan federal court, said he spoke to his client about his son.
“He’s deeply concerned about his five-year-old son,” Harold Solis said. “It was the first thing he asked me, is whether his son is okay.”
“My understanding is that the child is obviously very terrified,” Solis said.
Solis added that Belgal still had a bullet in his body 24 hours after the shooting.
“It’s a little unclear to us,” Solis said. “We just know it’s in his body, where it shouldn’t be. No one should be walking around with a bullet. He’s still in pain.”
On Saturday, Belgal was sitting in a cell at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, waiting for his next court appearance, which is scheduled for Tuesday.
U.S. Judge Paul Oetken has prohibited the feds from removing Belgal from the country absent a ruling from him and said he must remain in New York City or New Jersey. At a hearing Friday afternoon, the feds said he was being held in Brooklyn amid a question about whether the case should be heard in New Jersey, where he was briefly taken after the shooting.
During the enforcement operation, ICE officers attempted to block in Belgal with their vehicles, but officials claim that instead of surrendering, Belgal tried to flee, ramming two of the vehicles.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Friday that Belgal “weaponized his vehicle” and accelerated at ICE officers.
ICE agents were “unaware” that the child was in the backseat when they shot him, Mullin said.
“We weren’t aware the child was in the car,” he admitted. “But do you know who was aware? Oscar. Oscar knew he had a child in his car.”
Surveillance footage shows Belgal in his car by a fire hydrant while two ICE agents approach with weapons drawn. Instead of surrendering, he pulls away. A second video shows the shooting, which is off camera, and agents swarming the area as stunned residents try to run away with their hands raised.
Belgal had been arrested twice over the last three years for robbery and selling drugs and was free on supervised release after being charged with selling fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine to an undercover narcotics detective last year, according to court documents.
Mullin said Belgal is an associate of the Trinitarios street gang and may have “direct or indirect knowledge” of the shooting of a federal Customs and Border Protection officer in Fort Washington Park in Manhattan last year. ICE agents tried to grab Belgal in September, but he ran away from them, Mullin said.
In December 2025, Belgal was indicted on one count of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the second degree and nine counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, according to court documents. The case is still pending.
Thursday’s shooting sparked massive protests in both the Bronx and upper Manhattan later that night amid broad concern about ICE’s presence in the city and reputation for using heavy-handed tactics. Friday night saw the protests continue as thousands took to the streets, this time in Lower Manhattan.
ICE agents have often been criticized for their heavy-handed tactics when they arrest undocumented immigrants, seen by many as overly aggressive and unnecessarily violent. There have also been several high-profile incidents where agents shot, wounded or killed protesters, such as in Minneapolis in January when ICE agents fatally shot Renee Good.
While Belgal’s shooting has put a spotlight on longstanding concerns over ICE’s heavy-handed tactics, the agency has continued to press its deportation agenda on the streets of New York. Immigration arrests jumped this summer in New York State, with arrests climbing 68% from 922 in May to 1,552 in July, according to the Deportation Data Project.