Person shot during encounter with ICE agents in New York City, source says

Federal immigration operation in the Bronx ends with shooting, injuries and investigation

Activelifezero.com – A federal immigration enforcement operation in New York City’s Marble Hill neighborhood ended Thursday afternoon with a 28-year-old man wounded by gunfire, two federal agents hurt and a child left unharmed inside a vehicle.

The incident unfolded shortly after 4 p.m. when officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations unit encountered a man they had been seeking. That ICE branch is responsible for arrests involving undocumented immigrants.

New York police said the shooting occurred in Marble Hill, a neighborhood at Manhattan’s northern edge near the Bronx. The NYPD said its officers did not take part in the initial encounter.

Man taken to hospital with neck injury

Federal agents fired into the man’s vehicle during the confrontation. A 5-year-old child was seated in the rear of the vehicle and was not injured.

The man suffered injuries that included a grazing wound to his neck. His condition was not believed to be life-threatening. Police brought him to a hospital in a patrol vehicle instead of waiting for an ambulance.

The Department of Homeland Security said the operation had been aimed at arresting an undocumented immigrant from the Dominican Republic who had prior convictions and multiple previous arrests. DHS said a federal agent discharged a weapon during the operation and injured the man.

“He has associations to the Trinitarios gang,” DHS said in a statement.

The agency said agents provided aid immediately after the shooting. It did not detail the circumstances that caused the agent to open fire.

Criminal case history cited by officials

The injured man has a 2023 robbery arrest on his record. He later pleaded guilty to a reduced grand larceny charge and received five years of probation. He also faces a pending indictment involving the sale of a controlled substance.

Those allegations and case records form part of the background cited by law enforcement officials, but the immediate sequence of events before the gunfire has not been publicly explained.

Two federal agents also sustained injuries and were receiving treatment at a local hospital. One agent may have been hurt in a vehicle crash, though it remains uncertain whether that crash happened during the attempted arrest or while authorities were responding afterward.

Witnesses describe gunfire and panic

People near the scene told police they heard between five and six shots, followed by screams. Witnesses also described seeing a person in a bright yellow construction vest holding a firearm.

Video said to have been recorded at the location appears to show a man fitting that description. He is seen carrying what looks like a semi-automatic rifle and wearing an ICE badge on a lanyard around his neck.

Afterward, NYPD officials requested a mobilization for crowd management and evidence collection. Homeland Security Investigations agents arrived to assume responsibility for the shooting investigation. Police officers and HSI personnel were later seen beyond yellow tape as protesters began gathering nearby.

The investigative response resembles the federal handling of a September 20 ICE shooting in Austin, Texas, in which a Venezuelan man was wounded.

City and state leaders seek answers

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he had called President Donald Trump and intended to demand an end to ICE enforcement actions in the city. A spokesperson for the mayor said Thursday evening that Mamdani and Trump had not yet spoken.

“Our thoughts are with the injured New Yorker and his family tonight. We are praying for his recovery,” Mamdani said. “Get ICE out of our neighborhoods.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul said she had been briefed on the shooting and called for a complete explanation from federal authorities.

“We expect federal authorities to provide a full and transparent accounting of the circumstances surrounding this incident,” she said in a statement. “New Yorkers deserve to know exactly what happened and why.”

The case places renewed attention on how federal immigration arrests are carried out in densely populated neighborhoods, particularly when vehicles, bystanders and children are nearby. In this instance, investigators will be expected to determine the events leading up to the weapon discharge, the role of any vehicle collision and the nature of the injuries to the agents.

For residents of Marble Hill and surrounding communities, the immediate questions remain whether the operation unfolded as planned, what prompted the use of force and what investigators find from witness accounts, video and physical evidence at the scene.