A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and injured a man in New York City on Thursday afternoon during an enforcement operation, federal officials said.
The man was conscious and hospitalized, authorities said, and the shooting quickly sparked angry protests from local residents and elected officials in the neighborhood.
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 shooting took place at roughly 4pm in the Marble Hill neighborhood of the Bronx, according to the New York police department (NYPD).
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.
One witness told the City Reporter, a local news outlet, that she saw a man bleeding on the ground in front of a car and observed an agent holding a small child. 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”.
Hands Off NYC and the New York Immigration Coalition, two local groups, held an emergency press conference in the area where elected officials and organizers expressed outrage 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.”
Jumaane Williams, the city’s elected public advocate, said “fuck ICE” and “fuck Trump”, adding: “It is our time to stand up. Those of us who have more privilege – we must take more risk to protect those who don’t.”
New Yorkers of all ages flowed into the streets from the nearby 1 train, and protesters soon also gathered at a local hospital where the man shot by ICE was reported to be receiving treatment. Outside the hospital, NYPD set up barricades and protesters quickly clashed with police officers in a chaotic scene.
Demonstrators banged drums and shouted, “Shut it down,” and “ICE out!” as cars driving by honked in support.
Standing outside the hospital, Murad Awawdeh, the president of the New York Immigration Coalition, told the Guardian he wanted to see an independent investigation into the shooting led by New York officials. He also called on DHS to release footage of the shooting and for the officer who fired the shots to face prosecution.
“The pain that you’re witnessing is people who are witnessing their neighbors, their family members, their friends being ripped away,” he said.
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.
The shooting comes as ICE arrests have hit record levels, with the agency pivoting from the high-profile raids it carried out last year and instead more quietly dispatching agents into communities across the country.