NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for a man wounded by an immigration officer while driving with his young son in New York said in a court filing Wednesday that the agent who shot him never identified himself before he ran up to the car, smashed one of its windows, then fired several shots into the vehicle.
The account by lawyers for Oscar Belgal contrasted sharply with the version of events outlined by Department of Homeland Security officials. They have said officers opened fire only after Belgal smashed his car into two government vehicles and “accelerated toward other officers.”
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The Legal Aid Society, in a petition filed in Brooklyn federal court seeking Belgal's release, said he had picked up his son from school on Oct. 8 and was stopped in front of a fire hydrant, looking for a parking spot, when “an anonymous, masked man” stormed up to the vehicle with his gun drawn, followed by other masked men with guns.
“The men did not identify themselves, show any documents or otherwise communicate with Oscar in any substantive way," Belgal's lawyers wrote. "Instead, without identifying himself, the first man struck and shattered Oscar’s window and began firing a pistol into Oscar’s car while his son cowered in the back seat. One of those bullets struck Oscar in the neck and he immediately began to bleed.”
New York City police security camera footage released by the department last week shows some of the encounter but doesn't conclusively resolve the dispute about how the shooting happened.
The video shows a man wearing a sweatshirt and a red hat running up to the car with his gun pointed at Belgal, then immediately using the barrel of his gun to bash the driver’s side window. The window shatters on the second blow.
A second officer comes into view alongside the car and draws his gun. Belgal then pulls into the street, away from the two officers. The car pulls out of view of the camera, with the officer in the red hat in pursuit.
Whatever happened next didn't appear on the NYPD's security cameras, but the chase ended just a moment later, with Belgal's damaged car resting against a concrete barrier with bullet holes in its windshield and a rear window.
Video from bystanders and NYPD body camera footage show that ICE officers handcuffed Belgal and tended to a gunshot wound to his neck as he sat on the pavement outside the car. NYPD officers took Belgal to a nearby hospital.
DHS didn't comment Wednesday on the claims by Belgal's lawyers, saying the incident remains under investigation. But DHS officials have maintained that ICE officers fired their weapons because they believed their lives were in danger.
Belgal’s lawyers said he didn’t learn the men were ICE officers until he awoke later in the hospital. They say he remains detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he has yet to receive surgery to remove the bullet lodged in his neck. They also say he has lost sensation on the left side of his face and is suffering from impaired hearing.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons, which manages the jail, didn’t immediately comment.
“Mr. Belgal’s detention was unlawful from its inception. ICE officers shot him in the neck in front of his five year-old son, failed to provide him with immediate medical assistance, and now continue to hold him in a facility notorious for medical neglect,” said Perry McAninch and Elyssa Williams, the lawyers representing Belgal.
At a news conference last week, Marcos Charles, the head of ICE's enforcement and removal operations, said Belgal refused orders to exit his vehicle and then accelerated and smashed into two government vehicles as ICE officers tried to block him from driving away.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has maintained officers didn’t know a child was in the car and blamed Belgal for putting his son's life in danger.
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Associated Press reporter Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, contributed to this story.
