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ICE Had No Valid Warrant Ahead of Shooting, Attorneys Allege, as Belgal Is Held in Solitary

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ICE Had No Valid Warrant Ahead of Shooting, Attorneys Allege, as Belgal Is Held in Solitary📷 NYC Metro News
Immigration10/14 18:41· NYC Metro News96 reads
📰 Original English Reporting · Synced from NYC Metro News

ICE Had No Valid Warrant Ahead of Shooting, Attorneys Allege, as Belgal Is Held in Solitary

In a new court filing, Belgal’s attorneys say he’s being denied adequate medical care with a bullet still lodged in his neck.

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The Dominican man shot by an immigration agent in Marble Hill was arrested without a valid warrant and is being held in solitary confinement without proper medical care, according to a new court filing submitted by his attorneys Wednesday afternoon.

Oscar Belgal had just picked up his son from school then taken him to McDonald’s when plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents rushed his car and fired at least seven shots, striking him in the neck.

Belgal identified an “anonymous, masked man,” who first approached his drivers-side window with a gun drawn, The Legal Aid Society wrote in court papers.The agent then “struck and shattered Oscar’s window and began firing a pistol into Oscar’s car while his son cowered in the back seat.”

Video of the incident released by the New York Police Department, shows a man in a grey sweatshirt and a red hat as the first to approach Belgal’s SUV and bang on the window. The identity of the shooter has still not been confirmed by federal authorities.

“After ICE shot him, Oscar exited his vehicle and pleaded for medical assistance, fearing that he was dying. And believing the same, his son began yelling that the masked individuals had killed his dad,” the petition reads.

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Belgal lost consciousness, his attorneys said, and it wasn't until Belgal awoke at NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital a few blocks away that the men told him they were ICE agents.

Attorneys Perry Hall McAninch and Elyssa Nicole Williams with Legal Aid submitted the new details about the shooting in an amended habeas corpus petition filed in New York’s Eastern District on Wednesday afternoon.

They described Belgal as a 28-year-old father of two who works in construction and has lived in New York City for five years. His 5-year-old son was in the back seat at the time of the shooting. His other child is 1 year old, Legal Aid said.

“ICE’s egregious actions violate fundamental principles of every legal structure that constrains its conduct and authority — the Constitution, the statutory and regulatory framework, and even its own internal policies,” the petition reads, describing ICE’s, “flagrant abuses of authority and categorically lawless conduct” during Belgal’s arrest.

The petition charged ICE with violating federal laws and Belgal’s constitutional rights by continuing to deny him medical care, and because they didn’t have a valid administrative arrest warrant when they attempted to arrest him and shot him in the neck.

“ICE now holds Oscar in a segregated unit at MDC [Metropolitan Detention Center]. With the bullet still lodged in his neck, the entire left side of Oscar’s face remains numb,” the filing reads. “He struggles to hear anything out of his left ear, describing what he does hear as sounding as if it were far off in the distance. Meanwhile, jail staff offer him only ibuprofen for his pain.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately return a request for comment regarding the assertions.

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