Shooting in the Bronx during an ICE raid leaves one man shot and two agents injured

A man was shot and two federal agents were also injured Thursday afternoon during an ICE operation in Marble Hill, a neighborhood north of Manhattan adjacent to the Bronx. Authorities have not yet explained exactly what happened, but several details are already circulating on social media and in the press.

According to CNN, which cites preliminary information from a law enforcement source, the shooting occurred shortly after 4 p.m., when agents from Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), the branch of ICE dedicated to arresting undocumented immigrants, came across a person they were searching for and fired at his car. They took the injured person to a hospital. He was conscious, and, according to the source, his injuries were not life-threatening. The two agents who were injured were also treated at another medical facility. A federal official said one of them may have been injured in a car accident, although it is unclear whether this occurred during the arrest or during the subsequent response. Witnesses told police they heard between five and six gunshots and screams.

Another preliminary report from the New York Daily News explained that a five-year-old child was in danger during the operation, providing further details about the shooting.

According to the account, ICE agents opened fire on a silver Honda Civic around 4 p.m. According to sources, the victim was in the SUV when they were struck, and the child was in the back of the vehicle, an incident that prompted an immediate reaction from neighbors, who began to question the actions of law enforcement.

A fruit vendor, Cesar Gómez, told the New York Daily News that he was one block away from the shooting when he heard a "zoom and the car crashed."

"It was too many shots. Boom! Boom! Boom!" Gómez said, who witnessed the arriving officers pulling a terrified child out of the car. “(The victim) was bleeding from the back by his neck. They didn’t wait they put him in their own unmarked car and took him to the hospital.” The witness also described the officers as carrying assault weapons, a description that matches other reports.

"It wasn’t a pistol," he said. "It was a long gun like an AK-47. They were masked. Everything was covered. It was really crazy."

DHS, following a wave of outrage after the operation, issued its first statement following the incident, clarifying that the target was an undocumented immigrant from the Dominican Republic allegedly linked to Trinidadian gangs.

"On October 8, at approximately 4:00 PM ET, ICE officers were conducting a targeted enforcement operation in the Bronx, New York, to arrest a criminal illegal alien from the Dominican Republic with a prior criminal conviction for grand larceny, and multiple prior arrests for assault, robbery, possession of drugs, and weapons possession," the agency reported. "He has associations to the Trinitarios gang. The same gang who brutally killed a CBP officer last year."

"This criminal illegal alien was arrested by the NYPD on December 7, 2023, but was released into the community a few days later by reckless Democrat sanctuary policies that put American lives at risk. During the incident, an ICE officer discharged his weapon and the criminal illegal alien was injured," the statement continued, which made no mention of the five-year-old child and clarified that the individual received immediate medical attention. It also did not mention the agents' conditions.

This was, of course, unclear at the time, and neighbors gathered at the scene to confront the agents.

"Murderers!” / “F— ICE!” / “ICE out of the Bronx!" were some of the shouts hurled by the outraged neighbors.

Democratic officials also began speaking out on the matter, which remains under investigation and federal authorities have not yet clarified. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was one of the first to speak out, announcing that he had demanded an explanation from President Donald Trump.

"This afternoon in Marble Hill, a New Yorker was shot by an ICE agent in a residential neighborhood. Early reports indicate agents surrounded him and a 5-year-old child in his car before firing multiple rounds. We believe the child was physically unharmed," Mamdani said. "This is an unconscionable and incredibly serious situation. I have called the President; when we speak I will demand that he ends all ICE enforcement actions in our city. 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. Abolish ICE."

Governor Kathy Hochul also quickly spoke out, calling on the federal government to provide "a full and transparent accounting of the circumstances surrounding this incident."

"New Yorkers deserve to know exactly what happened and why," she added.

The New York Police Department also publicly clarified that it did not participate in the operation.