ICE Agents Open Fire 7 Times at Vehicle Carrying 5-Year-Old in Broad Daylight in New York Residential Area

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in New York opened fire on a vehicle carrying a 5-year-old child during an undocumented immigrant enforcement operation, injuring the driver.

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and The New York Times (NYT) on October 9 (local time), the shooting occurred at around 4 p.m. the previous day in the Marble Hill area of northern Manhattan as ICE agents attempted to arrest a 28-year-old Dominican national.

The man was inside the vehicle with a 5-year-old child believed to be his son.

According to the New York Police Department, immigration enforcement agents fired a total of seven shots toward the vehicle, and the man sustained a gunshot wound to the neck just below his ear and was transported to a hospital.

The man is reportedly in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries, and the child in the backseat was unharmed.

A witness stated that after hearing gunshots, they saw the vehicle crash into a concrete barrier, and the driver emerged holding his neck and shouting in Spanish.

The witness added that the child in the backseat was crying.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, stated that the incident occurred during a targeted enforcement operation against undocumented immigrants.

ICE claimed that the man is linked to a gang involved in robberies using weapons and small motorcycles.

However, controversy is growing as the shooting took place in a densely populated area near homes and schools during school dismissal hours, and it was revealed that a 5-year-old child was at the scene.


Protests protesting the immigration crackdown were held at the shooting scene and a nearby hospital.

Backlash from local politicians is also mounting, with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Governor Kathy Hochul lodging direct protests with President Donald Trump.

In a social media post, Mayor Mamdani condemned the incident as an "unacceptable and extremely serious situation" and called for ICE to be abolished.

He stated at a press conference the previous night that he had called President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, urging them for about two hours to release the wounded man, but failed.

Governor Hochul also stated that she contacted President Trump and Secretary Mullin to express her protest regarding the incident.

Governor Hochul said, "On behalf of New Yorkers, I express my outrage and urge an end to ICE enforcement operations in New York," demanding the release of body camera footage from the time of the shooting to uncover the truth.

In response, Marcos Charles, executive associate director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, held a press conference in Washington, D.C., on this day, refuting that agents fired their weapons because they felt their lives were threatened during the process of arresting the undocumented immigrant.

Secretary Mullin claimed at the briefing that while the agents did not know there was a child inside the car at the time, the man attempted to flee from enforcement despite knowing the child was on board.

Since taking office for his second term, the Trump administration has pushed large-scale deportation of undocumented immigrants as a core national task and intensified enforcement in major cities.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.